"I have begun to really like Gilani, our lemur."
"Yes, he looks confused but really is rather sensible."
"Well, he has directed his Advisor on Finance to ensure that the budget meets the public expectations."
"Excuse me?"
"He directed the Advisor..."
"I heard what you said, I am just marvelling at what he has said."
"Well, as the Prime Minister he knows that peoples' expectations are relevant, if you don't meet their expectations you are unlikely to come back to power, so all he said was that the next year's budget must contain a higher outlay for development expenditure, and this would not be possible without generating a massive increase in revenue. The government would then be able to effectively provide relief to the people and..."
"Excuse me!!!!"
"You don't have to shout. I am listening."
"Does he realise that higher revenue generation implies higher taxes and higher taxes may well break the backbone of the productive sector given that it is already suffering these days because of load shedding and high interest rates; and if that happens we will lose more jobs from the economy as well."
"I don't understand. Surely the public sector will provide the jobs when the development expenditure begins to be released into the economy. Besides exhorting the Finance Ministry to present a pro-poor budget shouldn't get you so angered."
"All I am saying is that by raising revenue and not taxing the rich landlords, to which elite group he belongs, or taxing the real estate magnates, and again I can name quite a few of his cabinet members in that august body, or not taxing the stock exchanges and..."
"I think the real estate sector will be taxed."
"Let's wait and see. And then there is the element of subsidy withdrawal from the utility sectors and that is not going to be pro-poor."
"I think it is. When you don't have supply of the utility providing a subsidy or not doesn't make any difference."
"Don't be facetious."