LAHORE: Punjab Finance Minister Makhdoom Hashim Jawan Bakht has said that the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government in its Annual Development Programme (ADP) for 2020-21 paid special attention to the construction industry as its 16 allied industries will cater to the needs of the poor segment of society in this pandemic.
The minister expressed these views while addressing a post-budget briefing at 90-Shahra-e-Quaid-e-Azam on Tuesday. Punjab Information Minister Fayyaz-ul-Hassan Chohan, chairman Punjab Revenue Authority (PRA), chairman Punjab Planning and Development (P&D) Board and other senior officers were also present on the occasion.
"Despite so many challenges due to the coronavirus, we provided relief to the masses and introduced a pro business budget of the history," the minister said, adding that the government paid special attention to the construction industry because almost 16 other industries are attached to it that would cater the needs of the needy people. He said the revenue target of the federal government is significantly low due to the pandemic. "Similarly, our targets are too low and most importantly it will not hamper the ADP. We have maintained it at the previous level," he said, adding that the main component of this budget was the establishment of the Punjab Public Private Partnership Authority.
Under this initiative, the minister said they have started work on the Southern Loop-3 of the Lahore Ring Road which will be completed by the end of this year with an estimated cost of over Rs 10 billion. "Nevertheless our revenue collections have hardly been hit by the pandemic, we decided not to compromise our public spending," he added. Explaining how the coronavirus pandemic is affecting economies across the world, the finance minister said, "Despite these challenging circumstances, we provided relief to the masses and safeguarded our developmental initiatives."
In this budget, we introduced a new developmental paradigm titled "Rise Punjab" under which almost Rs 106 billion were allocated to fight against the coronavirus by providing healthcare facilities. Out of the total allocation, Rs 106 billion is solely for Covid-19-related issues, he mentioned.
Talking about rolling expenditures introduced in the budget, Bakht explained that they will review the demands for grants of all the departments every month under this category and only those demands that found genuine will be approved.
"We don't know how long Covid-19 would stay and what will be its damages on economy, health and other segments. In this scenario, we decided to give our all importance to Covid-19-related issues and not to approve any demand for grants without thorough review," he asserted.
The minister said that a "Covid-19 relief package" is also a part of this budget under which the government would generate employment through community-based programs like "tree plantation drive" and "de-silting of canal" besides others.
When asked why the government relaxed lockdown, especially during Eid-ul-Fitr, which is the main reason behind rapidly growing confirmed Covid-19 cases, the minister said that imposing a complete lockdown is not a "tried and tested" solution to defeat the virus. He said they would have to take situation-based steps because it is a "unique" situation, adding that the government is comparing its healthcare load with the economy to make the system sustainable.
When asked about the relief package given to the business community, Bakht said they have given them a relief package of Rs 56 billion under which taxes on consultancy fee of doctors, small hotels or guest houses and catering services have been minimized to the maximum level.
"Taxes on I.T sector have also been cut down from 16 to five percent. Similarly, taxes on entertainment industry were almost 20 percent, but now they are merely five percent while stamp duty is fixed from five to one percent," he added.
When asked why the government did not pay any attention to the Orange Line Metro Train project initiated by the previous PML-N government in the budget, Hashim said he used to ask his opposition members in the provincial assembly whether they have any feasibility for launching the project.
The finance minister asked how they can build a "Rs 300 billion elephant" in a country like Pakistan where two patients lay on a single bed in a hospital in routine days. He said if the government would launch this project without giving subsidy then its each trip would cost around Rs 250 to Rs 300 to every person.
He added that when this train will start functioning, the government would have to give subsidy of nearly Rs 450 billion from the taxpayers' money besides making loan payment of Rs 450 billion to China. "It seems that almost 110 million people of Lahore would be paying Rs 9 billion for a 27-kilometer track train. However, we have allocated Rs 40 billion in the ADP for this project," he added.
To another query why the government opted to propose taxes on ride-hailing services like Uber and Careem in this pandemic since the people were already facing financial crunch, the minister said that the taxes on rent-a-car services were at 16 percent, but now they have reduced them to five percent. He added that though it is another debate whether Uber and Careem fall under the ambit of this tax category or not, they just simply propose four percent tax.
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