HYDERABAD, June 14: There has been a mixed reaction to the federal budget in the district as it has been hailed by the business community as a pro-investment and agriculture budget while criticized by nationalist parties as jugglery of figures and anti-people's budget.

Traders and industrialists said that the budget would go a long way in attracting investment and would also give a boost to the agriculture sector.

In a joint statement issued here on Sunday, Hyderabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry president Emad Siddiqui, former presidents of the chamber, Mohammad Yaqoob, Yousuf Kauser Bhatti, Yousuf Suleman, Abdul Razzaq Memon and Masood Parvez and others said that the budgetary proposals would increase the pace of industrial development, encourage the agriculture sector and provide job opportunities to people.

They welcomed the increase in exemption limit of income tax from Rs80,000 to Rs100,000. Federation of Chamber of Commerce and Industry former president Mohammad Iftikhar Malik said that due to neglect of the agriculture sector in the past, the country's economy had suffered a great deal in cash crops.

Talking to HCCI members, Mr Malik said that the present budget was agriculture-oriented which would have a positive affect on cash crops like cotton, rice and sugarcane.

He said that incentives announced for the agriculture sector would also have a good impact on the industrial sector. However, Sindh Taraqqi Pasand Party chairman Dr Qadir Magsi termed the federal budget a jugglery of figures.

In a statement issued here he said that it was a pro-capitalist budget in which the common man had not been given any relief. He was also critical of distribution of resources under the National Finance Commission award on the basis of the 1996 formula and said that Sindh had suffered a loss of Rs70 to Rs80 million due to that formula.

Sindh National Party chairman Ameer Bhambhro rejected the federal budget as anti-people. He said that only the capitalist class and defence personnel would benefit from the budgetary proposals.

He said that allocation for the education sector in the budget was negligible. Communist Party of Pakistan secretary-general Imdad Qazi in his statement criticized the seven per cent increase in the defence budget.