Federal budget has not provided any relief to the poor:Munawar Hasan

Lahore: Ameer, Jamaat e Islami, Pakistan, Syed Munawar Hasan, has said that the federal budget has not provided any relief to the poor whereas the new taxes would lead to further price hike.

Commenting on the next year budget, he said that one per cent raise in GST would cause five per cent increase in the prices. At the same time, federal excise duty had been imposed on essential items including ghee, sugar and vegetable oil. On the other hand, the rich people have been facilitated with the 25 per cent reduction in excise duty.

He said the allocations for the health and education sectors were very low that reflected the importance of these sectors in the eyes of the PML(N) government. The imposition of provincial income tax on agriculture would be an undue burden on the farmers.

Syed Munawar Hasan said that the new government had would continue the Benazir Income Support Programme only with the change in the name, and a huge amount of Rs. 75 billion had been set apart for that. Obviously, the amount would be given away to the PML(N) workers.

The JI Ameer said that  a sum of 225 billion had been allocated for the energy sector and the new government was keen to purchase electricity from India, at the rate of 18 per unit and the Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif had already hinted at the plan in this regard. He said that Iran had already laid down the transmission line for electricity several years back but the outgoing government was not in favour of the idea due to outside pressure. The new government was also ready to get electricity from India ignoring brotherly Iran, which was a matter of deep concern because India was our sworn enemy and we could not expect any good from it.

JI Secretary General, Liaqat Baloch, in his comments on the budget, said that the raise in GST would lead to price escalation on the prices of essential items. .

He further said that it was obvious the budget had been prepared in haste and it did not reflect the vision of the new government, If the government had any clear economic programme, it would to bring another budget.