ISLAMABAD, May 20: Finance Minister Shaukat Aziz announced on Thursday that no new taxes would be imposed under the new budget. Speaking at a meeting of the NA standing committee on economic affairs and statistics division, according to a official press release , the minister also stated that the new budget would seek to increase employment opportunities and assign top priority to enhancing availability of water for irrigation.

The government, the minister added, was also attending to other sectors including construction industry, education and health. The GDP, he said, had registered 6 per cent increase during the current fiscal year against the target of 5.3 per cent for the last financial year (2002-03).

Earlier, MNA Rashid Akbar Khan, presiding over the meeting, desired that the budget be people-friendly. He impressed upon the minister the need of provision of easy loans at low interest rates, the availability of good quality seeds and fertilizers and supply of irrigation water.

The committee, after listening to the presentation by the economic affairs division secretary about the loans advanced during the last five years, observed that in some cases, the loans were not utilised properly. It directed the finance ministry to avoid such trends in future.

The meeting was also attended by MNAs Fauzia Wahab, Tahira Asif, Abid Sher Ali, Israrul Ebad Khan, Pir Muhammad Aslam Bodla, Zulfikar Ali Gondal, Maulana Ahmad Ghafoor, Shakeela Khanam Rashid, Maulana Abdul Malik and Asadullah Bhutto.