ISLAMABAD, Feb 19: The opposition as well as the treasury lawmakers hit out at the government’s budget-making, economic, taxation, banking, agriculture and industrial policies as an unprecedented pre-budget debate started in the Senate on Monday.
Both sides of the divide had agreed in a special committee on the first day of the present session that the house needed to set traditions of discussing and providing useful input to the government on preparation of the budget.
Most of the speakers criticised the levy of direct taxes which affected the lowest strata of society and recommended taxing the sectors which were earning considerable part of the GDP but were contributing very little to the exchequer.
The practice of seeking supplementary grants at the end of the year without taking prior permission of the house also came under fire and it was suggested that the mid-term review of the budget should be done by the house before approving any additional financial resources to the government.
Haroon Akhtar Khan of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League and younger brother of Minister for Commerce Humayun Akhtar Khan suggested taxes on stock market, agriculture, real estate business and even educational material.
He proposed a reduction in the GST to 10 per cent from 15 per cent within two years to lessen economic burden on the poor and bringing in the tax net stock market which was earning in billions and real estate business which was booming with no worthwhile contribution.
He said though the overall revenue collection had increased from Rs300 billion to Rs800 billion, the collection against GDP ratio had declined to 10.4 per cent from 13 per cent. He said the high bank interest rates and high rate of inflation were twin menaces for the economic growth.
He proposed special incentives for sugarcane growers and involvement of sugar mill owners in development of the agriculture sector, especially cane growing on modern lines, under certain guarantees if it was interested to give impetus to the declining sugar production.
Mr Khan regretted that the textile sector which was contributing 11 per cent of the GDP and 22 per cent of the country’s exports and absorbed 35 per cent of labour force was fast declining because of policies of the government.
He said the agriculture sector was failing to deliver in terms of growth in per acre yield in cash crops because of lack of the government’s patronage of farmers.
PML Secretary-General Mushahid Hussain Sayed came up with a novel idea of setting up a “Mazloom Foundation” to cater to complaints and problems of the lowest strata of society.He proposed the setting up of a special insurance fund with seed money of Rs100 million which should be expanded with donors’ funding to meet the requirement of health insurance to artists, artisans, journalists and other professionals.Mr Hussain also proposed the setting up of an office of a cultural ambassador who should work for introducing and promoting culture in foreign lands as was done by India, Iran, and Turkey and other countries.
He also called for setting up a full-fledged ministry of human rights which should be devoted exclusively to the cases of human rights violation.
