LAHORE: Awami Workers Party (AWP) general secretary Farooq Tariq has condemned the ‘mini budget’ by Finance Minister Ishaq Dar which makes 313 products, mainly electronics, more expensive with 11 per cent additional levies.

He said the hike was planned to meet IMF and World Bank conditions to qualify for new loans at the cost of the poor.

He lamented that the country had become a dependent state on international financial institutions as the rulers were accepting ‘anti-people’ conditions without any hesitation.

The implementation of neo-liberal agenda, he said, had held the economy hostage to the IMF and the World Bank and more loans would be taken on very strict conditions to speed up the process of privatisation of profitable state-run institutions.

The new taxes, he said, would also encourage the smuggling of electronic items flourishing the black economy.

The AWP, he said, demanded an immediate withdrawal of these taxes and an end to the privatisation process.

Published in Dawn, December 1st, 2015