Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and Miftah Ismail, former PMLN leaders who recently formed the Awaam Pakistan party, on Monday slammed the federal budget for further burdening the salaries class and lacking decisive reforms.
Addressing a press conference in Islamabad, both leaders—one of whom is a former prime minister and the other former finance minister—said the government should prove its concern for the public by reducing expenditures; halting smuggling; and boosting exports through incentives. Calling for the government to review the budget and withdraw additional taxes on salaried individuals, Abbasi said the shortfall could be resolved by cutting development schemes.
“The budget does not carry any reform agenda, so how will the country move forward?” questioned Abbasi, adding it was unfortunate the government had imposed more taxes rather than cutting its own expenses. “No method has been adopted to bring non-taxpayers into the tax net and broaden the tax base,” he lamented, stressing the country go without repaving roads for a year if it meant greater relief for the public.
On the government’s punitive taxation measures for non-filers, the former prime minister said tax evaders would still not pay taxes and would find new years to avoid it. He also criticized the government’s exemption of property taxes for Army officials and civil bureaucrats, saying this would trigger similar calls from other sectors that the government could ill-afford.
“Will the government impose a 65% tax next year?” he questioned, emphasizing that if this situation persisted, people would stop paying tax entirely. Stressing on exports, he said the government must increase those from $30 billion to at least $50 billion, regretting the Special Investment Facilitation Council had failed to perform its primary task of facilitating investment.
Abbasi also criticized the lack of any concrete plans to privatize loss-making entities. He warned no foreign investment would come to Pakistan so long as the country had the “highest” regional electricity and gas tariffs.
Former finance minister Ismail, meanwhile, said the government was wrongly blaming the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for its own flawed policies. “Does the IMF ask the government to allocate Rs. 600 billion in funds for MNAs? Does it stop the government from taxing the agriculture sector and the elite class? Does the IMF force the government to increase gas and electricity tariffs?” he questioned.
He also criticized the government for continuing exemptions for industries in merged areas of erstwhile FATA.
Government response
In a subsequent press conference, Information Minister Attaullah Tarar claimed the two former PMLN leaders were wrong in believing Rs. 500 billion in funds were allocated to MNAs. He claimed the government was striving to cut expenses, pointing to the prime minister’s shuttering of the Pakistan-Public Works Department, and reiterated that no cabinet member was drawing any salary or availing perks and privileges.
“Miftah Ismail and Khaqan Abbasi should have lauded the government’s efforts to improve the economy as reserves have increased to $9 billion,” he claimed and recalled that under Ismail’s tenure as finance minister, the country had witnesses record-high inflation.