ISLAMABAD: The Upper House of the Parliament on Monday initiated debate on the proposed Finance Bill 2020-21 as the treasury benches insisted that the federal government formulated "best possible budget under prevailing circumstances," while opposition slammed as "anti-poor" the new federal budget.
Chairman Senate took strong notice of absence of senior officials of Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) to brief the Senate on budget and summoned them on Wednesday. Those who were issued notices included chairperson FBR, member policy FBR, member Customs and member Income Tax.
"All of them should be present on Wednesday. The House proceedings won't start until they are present," Sanjrani said while presiding over Senate session on Monday. Later, speaking on the floor of the House, Leader of the House in Senate Dr Shahzad Waseem, while sharing views on proposed federal budget, said, "One has to keep in mind the ground realities before commenting on this budget. A deadly pandemic has unleashed devastation worldwide and has also severely impacted Pakistan's economy.
Thousands of our countrymen are infected with coronavirus. Every sector ah come under tremendous stress as result of restrictive measures taken to stop the spread of coronavirus which has resulted in extremely adverse economic repercussions," he said.
Keeping in view these circumstances, this is the best possible budget any government could make keeping in view the existing circumstances. Instead of basing our criticism on a narrow-minded approach, we need to see the situation in a holistic perspective," he said.
He said Prime Minister Imran Khan strictly practiced austerity which helped reduce Prime Minister's Office's expenses by Rs 180 million. Immediately after coronavirus surfaced in Pakistan, the federal government announced stimulus package worth Rs 1,200 out of which Rs 875 billion have been allocated in the federal budget, Waseem said.
Pakistan's tax revenue witnessed an increase of 17 percent, non-tax revenue 134 percent, and record number of filers were registered as a result of government's efforts to document Pakistan's economy, he said adding that international financial institutions like Moody's, World Bank, and Bloomberg recognized stability in Pakistan's economy. Under Ehsaas Emergency Cash Programme, Rs 144 billion are being distributed among 12 million deserving families to financially assist them in the backdrop of spread of coronavirus, the leader of the House in Senate said adding that Rs 200 billion rupees were allocated for daily wagers, Rs 100 billion for small and medium enterprises, while utility bills of common people were deferred for three months.
Federal Minister for Narcotics Control Azam Khan Swati reiterated, "No cartel will be spared under the leadership of Prime Minister Imran Khan." The federal government would take on those cartels/mafias who are involved in artificial shortage of commodity and price hike he said. "No mercy for them. We have zero tolerance for such elements," he said.
Pakistan People's Party (PPP) Parliamentary Leader in Senate Sherry Rehman said, the federal government has imposed indirect taxes of worth Rs 2.29 trillion rupees besides direct taxes of Rs 200 billion in new budget.
"This government has taken loans more than all the previous governments took in 71 years," she said. "Look at the numbers of covid cases spiraling up, yet no lesson learnt has been reflected in the budget.
Instead of worrying that the pandemic has exposed chronic weaknesses of our healthcare system, we are told now that look at India, they have more deaths than Pakistan! Like most information the government shared, this data is also misleading. India has 7 deaths per million and Pakistan has climbed up to 7 per million.
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