ISLAMABAD: Casting aspersions on the government’s ability to achieve its targeted 5pc growth rate, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Senator Shaukat Tarin on Saturday came down hard on the government, and termed the budget for 2022-23 as non-serious and based on “unrealistic assumptions”.

Speaking at a presser along with Omar Ayub and Muzamil Aslam, he said that this is a very non-serious kind of budget which has unrealistic assumptions.

Tarin criticised many of the figures and targets given in the budget for various sectors and areas, saying the regime should understand that the numbers do not lie no matter how much spin-doctoring they do.

He expressed scepticism over the government’s stated growth target, saying the agricultural and industrial sector targets would not be able to be met due to the recent fuel price increases, rising inflation, and rising electricity prices.

Tarin terms budget ‘a pack of lies’

He said the prices of fuel and electricity were expected to be further increased which would take inflation to 25pc to 30pc, adding the petroleum levy would be further increased along with the gas development levy.

Tarin, a former finance minister of the PTI, said that the government had under and over-budgeted many figures.

“There are many things in the budget which they’ve shown less and basically they’ve shown an income target which won’t even be collected,” he added.

He said that in his opinion, the income tax should have been increased along with customs duties and GST, adding the government has instead proposed giving relief to the salaried class, reducing the number of tax slabs and not taxing individuals earning up to Rs1.2 million a year – Rs100,000 per month.

Tarin alleged that five new programmes he had introduced to the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) to increase tax collection were stopped by the government and it was resorting to old tactics such as fixed income tax.

“They’re working by that same old logic of Purana Pakistan (old Pakistan),” he lamented.

He also said that the government had gone ahead with certain steps and measures that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) had stopped the PTI government.

“I think they will have a problem with the IMF now,” he added.

“I think the economy was not their target and it was not their goal to fix it. Their goal was to go and change two or three things to their advantages such as amending the NAB law and election law,” he added.

He further criticised the budget for ignoring issues such as the minimum wage or doing away with the many pro-poor initiatives introduced by the PTI.

Tarin said the budget has put 20 million people in danger of going below the poverty line.

He also flayed the government over its negotiations with the IMF, saying it should have agreed to better terms.

He said that Pakistan’s economic situation was very dire and it needed a new government that had the mandate of the people. Former minister for energy Omar Ayub predicted that the government is going to increase petrol prices to Rs310 per litre next month.

He said that such a massive increase in petroleum products will badly affect people from all walks of life especially, the farmers and the common man.

He lambasted the government for the worse load-shedding in the country, saying the people are forced to pay exorbitant electricity bills, alleging that the circumstances show that the ‘imported regime’ is set to commit suicide the way it is running the country.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022