May 15, 2008	Thursday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 9, 1429

ISLAMABAD, May 14: The government, harried by both foes and friends, promised in the Senate on Wednesday to give relief to the public and pay raise to its employees in the next budget to lessen the pain of rocketing prices, though it said tough measures were needed to cure the country’s economic woes.

Minister in charge for finance Naveed Qamar, winding up a two-day debate on one of the country’s worst price hikes, also voiced his hope that remedial steps being taken by the PPP-led coalition government would restrict the budget deficit for fiscal 2007-08 to close to five per cent of the gross domestic product compared to the previously feared 8.5 per cent.

Senators from both the opposition and allied parties accused the 45-day-old government during the debate of doing little to check the price hike of food and other essential commodities marked by wheat and flour shortages that began under the previous government.

The situation came at a time when the Pakistan Muslim League-N quit cabinet as the second largest partner in the coalition in a row with the PPP over how to implement their joint pledge to restore 60 superior court judges sacked under President Pervez Musharraf’s controversial emergency proclamation of Nov 3, 2007.

Mr Qamar acknowledged what he saw as a consensus in the upper house that “enough is enough” on a “number one issue” that he said needed the collective wisdom of both sides of the political divide to tackle.

“It is a difficult situation and tough measures are required (to deal with it),” said the minister, who holds the portfolio of ports and shipping with the additional charge of privatisation but stood in the Senate for Finance Minister Ishaq Dar who handed their resignation with eight other PML-N ministers to Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani on Tuesday.

In what could be a salary increase, Mr Qamar assured government employees that they would get a substantial financial “direct relief” in the budget for the fiscal year 2008-09 to be unveiled next month and promised an unexplained “across-the-board relief” for the public at the same time to mitigate their sufferings.

Mr Qamar said the government would ensure the availability of adequate agricultural inputs and make timely announcements of support prices as incentives for growers, besides taking stringent measures to curb hoarding and smuggling of wheat and flour as well as building up reserves and ensuring sufficient supplies in the market. Responding to criticism against the present ban on the movement of wheat and flour from the main growing Punjab province to the other three deficient provinces, the minister said these restrictions would be lifted after ensuring sufficient security at the border to block smuggling outside the country.

In hint for a further increase in the support price for wheat, he said the present price set by the present government only last month at the time of harvesting at Rs625 for 40kg would be reviewed again before the next sowing.

The minister told the house that the government had taken note of the big increases in rice prices in recent months and decided to fix a minimum export price of the grain to ensure its supplies in the local market at reasonable rates without hurting exports.

Mr Qamar said the government was also cognizant of the recent sudden fall in the rupee value that he attributed to a rise in the prices of oil and edible oil imported by Pakistan as well as market speculation and said he hoped that after the steps taken by the State Bank to check the slide, the country’s foreign exchange reserves at the end of the current fiscal year would remain at the previous level of $12 billion.