Government approves 86 recommendations forwarded by Senate : Ishaq Dar

Lahore: Finance Minister, Senator Muhammad Ishaq Dar Friday informed the National Assembly that the government has approved as many as 86 recommendations, forwarded by the Upper House for incorporation in the Finance Bill 2016-17. The Senate had forwarded 139 recommendations to be incorporated in the budget document, out of which 86 have been approved by the government, which is 62 percent of the total recommendations, he said while concluding the debate on budget 2016-17.

This is a record in the parliamentary history of Pakistan,he added.

Giving break-up figures, the finance minister said that out of the 86 proposals, 34 were accepted in totality while 30 were approved in principle with remaining 22 approved partially. He said that implementation on 53 proposals was not possible.

The Finance Minister thanked the opposition leader for his positive response on the idea of formulating Economic Charter. He said the government has already provided three-year (2016-19) Medium Term Macro Economic Framework with the budget document.

He urged the opposition to give its recommendations so that economic roadmaps for seven years, ten years and 15-year could be formulated to lead the country towards sustainable development.
Ishaq Dar lamented that undue criticism was made against inflation which was against the reality.

He said that the inflation was reduced from 25 percent in 2008 to average 12 percent from 2008-2013 and less than 3 percent currently.He said that the Fiscal Deficit was also reduced form 8.4 percent to 4.3 percent during the past three years and the government targets to bring it more down to 3.8 percent
during the current fiscal year. He said the government has reduced cost of fertilizers, tax and tariff rates on tube-well electricity besides providing them credit facilities to enhance agriculture produce.

He said it has become fashion among some circles, now to doubt statistical figures, which was not a good
practice. He said Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) had been set up by passing an Act of the Parliament and the Chief Statistician is administered oath by the President.He said that the PBS is working in accordance with international standards so the doubts on this count were baseless and meaningless.

He said that rains and pest attack resulted in low agriculture growth, however, he added the services and
industrial sector performed well.He said that there was no discrimination in implementing China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) projects in the provinces. He said that CPEC was a game changer which would result in spread of road networks all across the country. He said that the portion of Direct Taxes has increased compared to the past and the SRO exemptions have been eliminated while it has been made difficult for non-filers to remain out of tax net.

He said that the government did its best to give relief on the commodities in use of poor and vulnerable by providing exemption on Indirect Taxes. He also dispelled the impression that taxes on petroleum
products have been increased. He read out the figures before the House to show that actually the taxes and petroleum development levy have been reduced during the tenure of current government.
Ishaq Dar said that Sales Tax on MS petrol has been reduced from Rs 14.70 in March 2013 to Rs 9.36 now. Similarly the tax on Kerosene oil has been reduced from Rs 14.30 to Rs 5.58, High Octane form Rs 19.32 to 10.58 and Light Diesel Oil from 13.55 to 1.86. However, he added that the tax on High Speed Diesel has been increased from 15.66 to 18.47.

He said that Petroleum Development Levy on petrol has decreased from Rs 10 to 9.68, on Kerosene from Rs 6 to just 5 paisa, High Octane from Rs 14 to Rs 11.89 and Light Diesel Oil from Rs 3 to just 5 paisa.

Finance Minister, Senator Muhammad Ishaq Dar while giving details about the public debt said that from 1947 to 30 June 1999 the debt stood at Rs 2940 billion.This reached to Rs 5800 billion in Musharraf regime which was further increased to Rs 14,318 in Peoples Party regime, (if circular debt is included), showing an increase of 1900 billion. During the last fourteen years, the public debt collectively
increased by Rs 12,000 billion. He said currently the debt portfolio is Rs 19168 billion, an increase of 4850 billion. He said that the government’s external borrowing stood at $15.23 billion during last 2.5 years, out of which $ 10 billion were spent on paying back the debt taken by the previous governments, hence there was only $5.23 billion increase in debt during this period.

Dar said that all the external debt was taken at 3.3 % cost and if the grants are added the cost would go less than 3 %. He said that foreign exchange reserves have been recorded at $21.50 billion and informed the House the reserves would touch $22 billion mark soon. He said funds for Public Sector Development Project (PSPD) have been increased from Rs 348 billion to Rs 800 billion while the amount for Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) has been increased from Rs 102 billion to Rs 115 billion.

He said the government was providing all resources for armed forces and TDPs and has spent Rs 240 billion on Operation Zarb-e-Azb.

The repatriation process of TDPs has been started and all resources were being provided in this regard, he added.
He said China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) was a game changer for the region and work on western route of CPEC has been started from Burhan to D.I.Khan. He added the government was implementing all decisions of the All Parties Conference regarding CPEC.

About concerns of the Opposition regarding not holding population census and announcement of the NFC Award, the Minister the 9th NFC award was constituted in 2015 and its working groups have been constituted on four subjects and their recommendations would be placed in the next meeting for consideration. He said all arrangements were made in March 2016 for census but it was postponed due to engagement of army in operation Zarb e Azb.

The Minister said it was top priority of the government to strengthen industry and agriculture sectors, adding,a number of steps have been taken in the budget for these sectors.

In this regard, he said , volume of agriculture loans had been increased to Rs 600 billion while a number of steps have been taken to increase agriculture produce that include reduction in pries of fertilizers, unit
price of agriculture tube-wells, reduction in taxes on pesticides etc.

Dar rejected the impression that government was not focussing on hydel power generation and said that Rs 32 billion had been allocated for Diamir Bhasha dam in the new budget while Rs 42 billion had been allocated for Dassu, Rs 61 billion for Nelum Jehlum and Rs 16.5 billion for Tarbeal Extension- 4 projects.

Talking about fiscal responsibility, the minister said that debt to GDP ratio has been reduced from 66.5 percent to 63.6 percent which would be further reduced to 60 percent during the next two years.

He said that the government was strengthening the fiscal discipline adding that the budget deficit would be reduced to 3.5 percent during the current year. Regarding the supplementary grant, he said that Constitution allows provisions of such grants.

He said that reform process has been introduced in public sector entities to make them profitable adding
that the privatization of PIA and State life Insurance Corporation has been initiated.

The minister said that the performance of the Pakistan Railways has improved adding that for ensuring transparency the government has prepared a report on the financial performance of different institutions to bring about betterment in those organizations. He said that the government has considered the recommendation for enhancing salary of the government adding in addition to already announced merger of ad-hoc,the ad-hoc relief of 2015-16 would also be merged in the basic salary and then ten percent increase would be given.

In total, it would have about 13 percent increase on the salary of employees. He said that the accommodation ceiling for armed forces has also been increased.