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LAHORE, June 17: Leader of the Opposition in the Punjab Assembly Qasim Zia says the government has once again deceived the masses through a jugglery of statistics in the provincial budget.
Except for the exemption of five-marla houses from property tax, the budget offered no relief to the masses, he told reporters at his chamber here on Thursday. The credit for this exemption too goes to the opposition, he said, adding it was MMA's Ehsanullah Waqas who had moved a bill to this effect.
Saying that he would dilate upon the budget after going through all statistics, he however regretted that the government had promised its ministers a 75 per cent increase in the perks, but its poor employees only a 15 per cent raise.
About the government's promise that one million jobs would be created, he said it would develop the private sector which would then offer jobs to the people and the process might take years.
Rana Aftab said the cut in stamp duty on land purchase would not benefit the common man who did not have the resources to buy land. He deplored that the government would collect resources and offer the same to an individual through the Punjab Social Security Health Management Company. He described it as organized financial crime.
Lahore PPP secretary-general MPA Samiullah Khan pointed out that the property tax exemption for five-marla house owners would be extended only to kutcha abadis as only slum areas came under the D, E, F and G categories mentioned in the budget document.
The white-collar class living in A, B and C category of five-marla houses would be deprived of this facility, he added. He believed that the masses could not reap the fruits of social sector investment in the presence of a corrupt administrative set-up lacking the concept of good governance.
MPA Tanvir Ashraf Kaira alleged that property transfer laws were being amended to benefit some influential people in the ranks of the government. MPA Imtiaz Jehanzeb questioned the abilities of the finance minister who, he said, could not get the province its due right in the NFC.
RANA SANA: PML-N parliamentary party leader Rana Sanaullah Khan criticized the "ambiguities" in the budget. He said the targets set in last year's budget had been totally ignored by finance minister Husnain Bahadur Dareshak in his budget speech on Thursday.
The government should have put before the house the progress made on the targets set a year ago, he added. The minister gave only an overall view of social sector development and avoided saying anything in absolute terms, he said.
The budget speech depicted that the government lacked a vision for the progress of the province and welfare of the masses, he said. He deplored that the finance minister had not been given time to prepare the speech because his comprehension of the document was poor.
About the property tax exemption for five-marla houses, he said the government had virtually withdrawn the facility by confining it to just D to G categories of houses.
