The Senate opened debate on federal budget for 2018-19 on Monday amid praise from treasury while the opposition led by Senator Sherry Rehman did not seem impressed with it at all. In a hard-hitting speech, the Opposition Leader in the Upper House of Parliament, Senator Sherry Rehman called it a "lame duck budget by a lame duck government and a well thought-out plan for pre-poll rigging."
Rehman, the first-ever woman opposition leader in Senate, explained the much trumpeted budget of the outgoing Pakistan Muslim league-Nawaz (PML-N) government in three Bs: "This is a borrowing, billionaire''s and barbadi (disaster) budget."
"The textile industry that contributes 57 percent to the country''s exports has lost its global textile share by 23 percent. One hundred and fifty mills have faced closure. This is alarming considering that we are the 5th largest cotton producer in the world," she exclaimed.
Stressing the significance of the budget, she mentioned the main economic danger points, saying, "Our circular debt has reached a whopping Rs1 trillion and we are the 7th most water stressed nation - a matter of shame that a meager sum of Rs 38 billion was allocated for water without any details."
"Pakistan''s entire budget is based on borrowing to pay back more loans. How can the government not call this a financial emergency? The next government will face a nightmare of repayments with no revenue stream," she added.
"The World Bank says that Pakistan needs to raise $17 billion to cover for its debts repayments and current account deficit. How will any of this be done and achieved under this paralyzed economy?" she asked.
Rehman further said, "Forty billion dollars were borrowed in the span of four years. We are taking more debt to pay back debt. The principal amount on the Eurobond has to be retired in July 2018. There is no revenue stream to meet these targets and expenditures. As a result, more Eurobond will be raised and more loans will be taken from China."
"Thirty percent tax concessions have been given to billionaires but nothing to the poor. The government has provided no relief to the masses. Instead, the burden remains on the poor with the petroleum levy they are quietly introducing. Quite frankly, the government has dropped a petrol bomb on the people of Pakistan. Due to this, there will be a 200% increase in petrol prices," she added.
"Why has the government given tax concession to imported LNG and none to Pakistani gas? The Qatar LNG deal is already marred by a controversy. To this day, we don''t know what is under the black ink used to block transparency on the contract with the QatarGas," Rehman said. "It is alarming that irregularities worth Rs8 trillion have been found in the government''s accounts. This figure is almost double the amount allocated for the whole fiscal year budget," she claimed.
She also questioned the appointment of an unelected man [Miftah Ismail] as finance minister a few hours before announcement of the budget, saying if there was no emergency, what the reasons were which forced the government to handpick a person who was not even an elected member of any House.
Rehman also raised objections over absence of the government ministers in the House that prompted Chairman Senate Muhammad Sadiq Sanjrani to direct the government to ensure the presence of the finance minister in the House on Wednesday.
PPP''s Parliamentary Leader Dr Sikandar Mandhro accused the finance minister of resorting to figure fudging and making controversial claims and then read out a paragraph from the minister''s budget speech, saying the minister claimed that Pakistan is the sixth major rising economy.
He said if this was so then why Pakistan''s per capita income was at 150th among the comity of nations and while over 50 per cent population lived below the poverty line, literacy rate was so low and maternal mortality rate was so high. It was due to lack of confidence, as the minister was installed two-three hours before for presentation of the budget, he alleged.
Taking part in the debate, Senator Haroon Akhtar Khan of ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) painted a rosy picture of his party''s five-year tenure which is about to end, saying massive reforms were introduced during the last five years, as the PML-N had inherited a fractured economy from PPP back in 2013.
He called upon the opposition parties to avoid political point-scoring as it will spoil the image of the country in comity of nations. He said the biggest indicator of the economy is GDP and its growth reflects strength of economy which has improved from 3.3 percent to 5.8 percent.
He said that real GDP growth stood at 3.68 percent in 2013 but now it is at 5.79 percent. "Is this the reason you want to impose financial emergency?" he questioned in response to opposition leader''s hard-hitting speech wherein she accused the government of bringing the economy to a complete collapse due to its flawed polices.
"The agriculture growth was 2.68 percent when we took over in 2013, and now we are leaving by taking it to 3.81 percent. The growth of services was 5.13 percent, and now it is 6.43 percent...Is this the reason you want a financial emergency?" he retorted.
According to Khan, industry improved from 0.7 percent in 2013 to 5.0 percent in 2018, agriculture from 2.68 percent to 3.81 percent and services from 5.13 percent to 6.43 percent due to prudent policies of outgoing government.
Giving all the credit to the former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, the senator said that meat production increased from 21 percent to over 25 percent while and maize jumped up from 4.22 percent to 5.0 percent.
"The Consumer Price Index in 2013 was 8 percent which is now 3.78 percent. Workers remittances were $13 billion back in 2013 and now this government is leaving by now increasing them to more than $20 billion," he boasted.
Responding foreign exchange reserves, he said that the country still has $17 billion while the total foreign exchange reserves were $11.85 billion in 2013. He said that per capita income in the country has increased from $1333 to $1640 which reflects this government turned things around within a short span of five years.
He said that the then Karachi Stock Market stood at 19,916 points in 2013 and now Pakistan Stock Exchange is showing 45877 points despite all the political turmoil, adding its market capitalization increased from $51 billion to more than $80 billion.
"This robustness of the economic indicators shows a healthy structure of the economy. The all important China-Pakistan Economic Corridor is one major investment for which the credit goes to Nawaz Sharif as he brought such a huge investment in the country when no one was ready to step in here," he added.
The senator also took pride in improving Karachi law and order and ending the prolonged power cuts in the country, saying different projects were started to improve the energy situation and construction of infrastructure.
He said over 12,000MW of electricity has been added to the national grid and 10,000MW more will be added in the coming months, adding no government ever took such measures except PML-N government, as it took over at time when everything was in a shambles.
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