ISLAMABAD, May 04 (APP):Lawmakers belonging to different political parties Friday put forward various proposals to make the budget for fiscal year 2018-19 result-oriented and help promote sustainable economic growth.
Resuming debate on the budget at National Assembly, the lawmakers identified different areas where they suggested the government to focus and lead the country towards progress and development.
Participating in the budget debate,Sahibzada Tariqullah stressed the need for collecting tax from the wealthiest people of the country, which he said would contribute substantially in enhancing the revenues.
He said that the government at one side had announced tax-free budget but at the same time provided many exemptions, questioning how it was going to meet the collection target of Rs4436 billion, set for the current fiscal year.
He said that only 0.9 percent of country’s total population was paying tax, whereas the ratio was much higher even in our neighboring countries.
Sahibzada also lamented that as many as 109 schemes, which were included in Public Sector Development Programme(PSDP) during previous years, were not included in the next PSDP.
He said that the government was advised to announce budget only for four months and let the upcoming government to present budget for the whole fiscal year, which was its right.
He said that though the government has presented its 6th budget, but unfortunately it was presented by an unelected representative.
Taking part in the debate, Shahji Gul Afridi, while highlighting the importance of enhancing trade among regional countries, stressed the need for paying attention towards transport sector to
tap its full potential.
He said that since Pakistan was member of Convention on International Transport of Goods, TIR, it should take full
advantage of it and promote its transport sector, adding that if Chinese transport could operate in Pakistan why can’t Pakistani transport operate in China.
He said that China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) also provides an opportunity to promote transport sector, which
he said was paying taxes of Rs500-Rs600 billion annually.He demanded policy intervention to tap the full potential of this sector and highlighted the need for devising long term policies instead of focusing on short-term policies to take the country
forward.
On the occasion, Azra Fazal Pechuho said that the debt of the country has inflated and the government has failed to give
any paradigm to promote growth and lead the country towards development.
She also drew the attention of the government towards Rs400 billion sales tax returns which it had to pay to business community.
Dr Azra Fazal Pechuho said the budget had no provision to pay huge circular debt.
She said the government should not come in influence of mafia and property
value tax should be increased to get more revenues.
She was of the views that the tax amnesty scheme would not help bridge trade deficit.
She also called for preparing a concrete plan to reduce population growth in the
country.
Chaudhary Khadim Hussain while taking part in the debate said PML-N government completed
various development projects in the country. He said his party was neither
against judiciary nor armed force.
Amjad Ali Khan said the government has presented its last budget, however pointed out
the targets set in previous budgets were not achieved. The government has obtained massive foreign
loan and people were being exploited financially, he added.
Shahida Akhtar Ali said that 60 percent of the country’s population was youth which
could prove productive for the country if appropriate policy was devised,
however lamented that no proper strategy was given in the current budget to tap
this potential.
She also highlighted importance of devising a comprehensive policy to address the
issue of unemployment.
She said that the imports of the country were more than double of exports, so
special attention was required to promote exports. She also highlighted the
issue of clean drinking water.
Arbab Amir Ayub while participating in the debate claimed that no mega fund was
provided by the government for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Waseem Hussain while participating in the budget said that the focus of budget should be
on welfare of people, however the budget presented by the government was
depicting different picture.
He said there were no university and medical college in Hyderabad despite population
of millions of people. He called for setting up university and medical college
in Hyderabad.
He also called for establishing more provinces on basis of administrative units in
the country.
Later the house was adjourned to meet again on Monday at 05:00 pm.