ISLAMABAD: Finance Minister Ishaq Dar informed the National Assembly on Wednesday that tax exemptions of Rs320 billion were provided to the business class in seven months.

In a written reply to a question submitted by Lal Chand of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf, Mr Dar told the house that from July 2013 to February 2014 the government waived Rs320.8bn in duties and taxes.

The minister said “these exemptions are on account of all SROs issued from time to time, which are operational till date and not only those issued under the current financial year”.

A retired federal secretary told Dawn: “Considering current weak state of national economy, the government should review its policy of issuing SROs just to benefit business interests of the few powerful. It’s not only the PML-N, every government has generously thrown favours to the business class of their liking.”

In reply to a question put by Sahibzada Mohammad Yaqub of Jamaat-i-Islami, the minister said the government had no plans to increase salary of government employees in the next budget.

Answering a question put by Dr Azra Fazal Pechuho of the PPP about foreign loans received by the present government from the IMF, World Bank and Asian Development Bank, Mr Dar said an amount of $203.2 million was received from the World Bank during the first six months of the current financial year and it was being spent on bank-driven projects.

He said the government negotiated and signed three loans — for the Social Protection Development Project ($430m), Jamshoro Power Generation Project ($900m) and MFF-Power Distribution Enhancement Investment Programme Tranche-III ($245m) — with the Asian Development Bank during the same period.