ISLAMABAD: The treasury and the opposition benches faced off on Finance Bill 2020-2021 in the National Assembly as general debate on the budget for 2020-2021 continued on Wednesday.

Taking part in the debate, the members belonging to treasury were all praise for their government, saying a tax-free budget at a time when the country is facing a pandemic is commendable.

The opposition members kept reminding their fellow MPs from treasury not to take refuge under the Covid-19 pandemic from the failures of their party's government arguing the novel coronavirus started just a few months ago. Taking part in the debate, opposition Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) MNA Ayesha Ghous Pasha said that for the first time in the history of the country, there was no revised estimate of the outgoing year in the budgeting brief.

She contended that budget deficit was 10.1 and the government claim that it was 9.1, was misleading, adding it was a willful attempt to hide the tax mobilization target.

She said that this year, the government claimed the budget deficit would be 9.1 percent of the GDP, but it was 10.1 percent, and they know it because they had stated two things wrongly.

She said that the "revenue was set to go down from the 80 billion i.e. 0.2 percent of the GDP", adding the total deficit of all four provincial governments would be 80 billion.

"So the IMF report says budget deficit of all four provinces is going to be 209 billion, so in the budgeting brief, it's clearly written the budget deficit of the province is 393 billion [and] to hide its budget deficit, they're hiding the provincial deficit, so this budget is not 9.1 as it is 10.1," she added.

Another PML-N MNA Rana Sanaullah came down hard on the government, and said the government should be ashamed of itself for presenting such a budget where there was no relief for the poor.

"The government has completely destroyed the economy and failed to fulfill all its promises made with the masses before coming into power," he added. He said that sugar mafia plundered Rs100 to 150 billion and no action had been taken against them by the government, adding inaction against the sugar mafias was the reason they were freely operating in the country.

He asked the government to reduce the price of sugar and pass on the benefit to the masses. He also questioned non-allocation of funds for the much-trumpeted low-cost housing schemes of the PTI.

He alleged that unemployment was on the rise due to flawed economic policies of the government, adding confused policy of the government on coronavirus increased the number of patients.

He said that the government had miserably failed to collect the targeted tax revenue. He said that his party government ended load-shedding and terrorism from the country.

He also accused the government of slowing down work on the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).

Zartaj Gul, the state minister for climate change, said that the development schemes being undertaken in southern Punjab would usher in a new era of development as successive governments did not pay any heed to the plight of the people.

She said that the government was paying special attention to the public welfare projects in the area, and all the projects especially hospitals would be completed on priority basis with the provision of other necessary facilities.

She was all praise for Planning and Development Minister Asad Umar, and Minister for Communications Murad Saeed for allocating Rs52 billion for construction of roads in Dera Ghazi Khan.

Maulana Abdul Akbar Chitrali of Muttahdia Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) said that there should be at least 10-15 percent pay rise for government employees as inflation was skyrocketing.

He said that teachers of seminaries and students should be facilitated in the present difficult times. He asked the government to take care of Pakistan Steels Mills (PSM) employees and restore their services. He also asked the government to end interest-based system in the country. He urged the government to take action against elements involved in creating shortage of petroleum products.

He thanked the government for including mega development projects for Chitral in budget 2020-2021. The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf MNA, Fazal Muhammad Khan, said that the government had announced pro-people and business-friendly budget.

He said that the PTI chairman always took along the members of his party on all important issues. He asked the government to lay transmission line for district Charsadda.