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| June 9, 2003 | Monday | Rabi-us-Sani 8, 1424 |
Budget evokes mixed reaction
PESHAWAR, June 8: Federal budget on Sunday evinced mixed reaction from the NWFP’s politicians while local labour leaders expressed expectation of mini-budgets during the new financial year.
Provincial chief of the People’s Party Parliamentarians Khwaja Mohammad Khan Hoti criticized the government, saying the federal budget had not given any relief to the common man who were unable to pay their utility bills, adding that nominal relief had been provided to government employees, who constituted a mere three per cent of the population.
In a statement issued here, he said that the budget did not include allocation of funds for the construction of hydro- electric dams and development of the canal system in the NWFP.
Accusing the federal government of deliberately ignoring the constitution of the National Finance Commission award, depriving the province from its share on the basis of fresh census.
Referring to the demands made by industrialists of the Gadoon and Hattar industrial estates, he said the federal government had not provided them with relief in freight rates, without which they could not compete with industrialists of Punjab and Sindh.
Calling for setting up a one-window facility to facilitate industrialists, stuck in a web of scores of different agencies.
He also called for the provision of wheat at a uniform rate to every province.
Local leaders of the National Labour Federation of Pakistan, NWFP, termed the budget an anti-working class document.
In a statement issued here, NLFP leaders, including its press secretary Salim Khan Marwat, said that while lower-grade employees had been provided with a salary raise of Rs250, senior bureaucrats had been given a relief amounting to Rs2,650, adding that the disparity was enough to show that it was not a poor man’s budget.
Dismissing the government’s contention that there would not be any mini-budgets, he said that mini-budgets had become a routine as the government was in the habit of releasing budget in instalments.
The government, he said, should provide more relief to lower- grade government servants instead of providing more benefits to the well-to-do bureaucrats.
Leaders of the PPP (Sherpao), while welcoming the federal budget, termed it a people-friendly document, proposing effective fiscal measures for economic stability and promising relief to the masses.
A statement released by the party, signed by MPA Sikandar Hayat Sherpao, stated that the current budget mainly focused on poverty reduction, employment generation and price stabilization, which was only possible through consist policies.
He said that the budget mainly focussed on the water sector, adding that it would help improve the country’s agricultural yield.
Stressing the need to overcome irrigation problems faced by the province, he called for starting work on the Munda dam.
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