Budget debate in National Assembly: government criticised for 'taxing' ordinary people

The debate on the Finance Bill 2013-14 continued in the National Assembly on Thursday amid thin attendance of lawmakers. Opposition lawmakers accused the government of levying General Sale Tax (GST) on ordinary people, instead of the rich. They also pointed out that budget documents did not reflect the PML-N's manifesto.
Mahreen Raza Bhutto of PPPP accused the government of ignoring crucial projects such as Iran-Pakistan Gas Pipeline and development of Gwadar Port like projects in the budget documents. However, she admitted that the government had expressed its willingness to continue ongoing major water projects such as Bhasha dam and Neelum-Jhelum hydel power, projects initiated during the PPP's government tenure. She also claimed that PPP government had added 3,600 megawatts to the energy sector.
Shehryar Afridi said there were some lacunas in the federal budget, which needed to be rectified. Giving an example, he said that the Finance Minister had stated that the federal government's budget deficit was Rs 23 billion, Rs 61 billion of three provincial governments while Balochistan's deficit was Rs 10 billion, but provided no solution to recover accumulating deficit of Rs 94 billion.
Tahira Aurangzeb accused the previous government of failing address real issues of the poor. She said the PPP government had also failed to arrest the murderers of Benazir Bhutto. Ahsan Rehman Mazari said that National Income Support Programme should not have been renamed. Pir Shafqat Hussain Jilani said that the government should go for 'rapid industrialisation' as had been done in 1965.
Salman Khan Baloch said the budget document was devoid of any proposal to end the energy crises, improve law and order situation and curtail inflation, adding that it could not be termed a pro-poor budget. National Assembly will resume again on Friday to wind up budget debate. Earlier, a PML-N lawmaker, Shazia Noreen, complained that her house had been robbed on the budget night and bandits had deprived her of Rs 8 million in addition to certain other valuables. She said that she had not been able to register an FIR despite having contacted the IG Sindh.
She said that police had detained some people, but they had later been freed. The provincial police had asked her to contact the federal government in this regard, she maintained. Expressing disappointment over the incident and police inaction, Abdul Qadir Baloch assured the house that the issue would be raised with authorities concerned and a report would be submitted in this regard in two days. He further said that the IG Sindh would also be contacted.