AS expected, the National Assembly on Monday approved the second budget of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf government for the fiscal year 2020-21, which is being seen by majority of the people as lacklustre. The opposition had vowed to block the passage of the Finance Bill, which gives legal effect to the budgetary proposals, but the Government managed to get it passed easily despite fissures among coalition partners and the episode of some missing ruling party members.
No doubt, the Government presented the budget in difficult circumstances as the economy was reeling under multiple pressures mainly because of the crisis triggered by Covid-19. Revenue generation to run affairs of the state was apparently one of the prime concerns of the authorities concerned and an ambitious target of tax collection has also been fixed, which is unlikely to be realized. There are, of course, some relief measures especially for industry as taxes and duties on raw material have been reduced or abolished with the objective of stirring up the moribund economic activities. Incentives given for cement and sanitary ware products should lead to reduction in construction cost but given the poor track record of the government to ensure trickledown effect of the relief measures it has been introducing since coming into power, there is little to inspire confidence that the benefit of the relief measures contained in the new budget would reach to the common man. The government claims it is tax-free budget but increase in rate of taxes for many items of direct interest to the people belies this claim and would put more burden on the masses. This is particularly so in the case of salaried persons and pensioners who did not receive any good news in the winding up speech despite expectations that the government might review its decision of not increasing their salaries and pensions under dictates of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Similar, cut in development expenditure and less allocations for CPEC projects are also a matter of concern as this means compressed economic activities and a few employment opportunities for people affected badly by Coronavirus.
