Opposition parties reject budget plan as anti-people, IMF-dictated

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s opposition parties on Tuesday termed the federal budget for fiscal year to June 2020 “anti-people” and dictated by the terms of an International Monetary Fund loan, adding that the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government had no roadmap or policy to provide relief to common Pakistanis facing the brunt of a ballooning economic crisis.
Pakistan has announced a Rs8.2 trillion budget with the next year, with a tax revenue target of Rs5.5 trillion, a 25 percent increase from the Rs4.4 trillion target set in last year’s budget.
As Revenue Minister Hammad Azhar unveiled the budget, members of the opposition parties chanted slogans against the government and held up placards that read: “IMF budget not accepted.”
Opposition politicians rejected the government’s claim that the budgetary proposals were focused on economic stability and sustainable growth and said the government’s vision would increase inflation and unemployment.
“This budget will bring a tsunami of new taxes and storm of inflation. We along with other opposition parties will try our best that this anti-people budget is not passed by the National Assembly,” Pakistan Peoples Party’s chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said while talking to reporters after the budget session.
Pervaiz Malik, a senior leader of the opposition Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, said the government had abolished a zero-rated tax regime on the export-oriented industry which would result in the reduction of the exports.
“The government has withdrawn the zero-rated tax facility on the pressure of the IMF [International Monetary Fund], and this will not only reduce the exports but also increase unemployment in the industrial sector,” he told Arab News, referring to a $6 billion bailout package that Pakistan is hoping the Fund will give final approval to.
Malik said the government had increased taxes on items of daily use including sugar, beverages and milk, and revised down the income tax limit for government employees from annual Rs1.2 million to Rs0.6 million.
“The PTI government has failed to keep its election promises of providing relief to the common man, and it stands fully exposed with this budget,” he said.
Moulana Abdul Akbar Chitrali, a lawmaker from the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal religious alliance, said the government had increased taxes on everything, but failed to increase budgetary allocations for education and health.
“There is nothing in this budget," he told Arab News. "In short, this is the IMF’s budget and we totally reject it.”