June 17, 2006	Saturday	Jumadi-ul-Awwal 20, 1427

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ISLAMABAD, June 16: People’s Party Parliamentarians MNA Dr Fehmida Mirza has criticised the government for bringing the budget before any announcement regarding the National Finance Commission (NFC). Dr Mirza, who was concluding the budget arguments on behalf of her party in the National Assembly on Thursday evening, also said there was no mention of allocations for Nadra in the budget. This was the biggest scam of which the state minister for finance, Omar Ayub Khan, was also unaware.

She said the official growth figures were never reliable as the finance ministry had shown the door to its chief economist, Dr Pervez Tahir, when he refused to accept the official statistics on growth just a few days before the budget announcement. The government was intentionally not filling the vacancy of the head of the Federal Bureau of Statistics to make the fudging of figures more easier, she alleged.

Not only the opposition parties, but even the ruling party members were not included in the budget making process. That’s why, Dr Farooq Sattar from the ruling coalition had presented a list of demands to be included in the budget. She said PPP was also in favour of the list of demands, but that must go beyond media statements to the implementation stage.

Dr Mirza said the over Rs12 billion subsidy on edible items could not benefit the local farmers, a majority of whom were living below poverty line. She sought withdrawal of the 15 per cent general sales tax (GST) on items of daily use to bring down prices.

She said the government’s current expenditures were 12.2 per cent more than the budgeted amount owing to which an additional Rs18 billion went to defence. On the other hand, less than half of allocations made for the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) were utilised. The trade deficit had crossed more than $10 billion which proved that the country’s economy was consumer driven and mainly dependent on foreign loans.

In response to a point of Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, Dr Mirza said the government was not bringing any “white revolution” but “white-collar revolution”.

The sale of subsidised food items through utility stores could not benefit the poor.