New taxes: Economic affairs should not be politicised: Ishaq Dar

Khursheed Shah says government has put the burden of its incompetence on people

LAHORE: While insisting that the common man would not be harmed by new taxes in the mini-budget, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar cautioned against playing politics on the economy.

“The money collected through taxes will increase our revenues,” Dar claimed, rejecting the claim that Rs40billion worth new taxes were imposed on the instruction of the International Monitory Fund (IMF). The finance minister was expressing these views at Express News show ‘G for Gharidah’. Dar said the taxes were levied on luxury items and their imposition was not going to harm common people.

“We have imposed 1% additional duty on import of luxury cars. We have raised taxes on imported cigarettes,” he said, adding that people in Pakistan are very fond of using imported items for which they will have to pay additional amount.

He said the government had to take the step as it was losing revenues due to decrease in petroleum prices in the international market.

Dar said of the Rs40 billion, Rs27 billion will go to provinces while the federal government will receive Rs13 billion. He said the country had to spend a great deal on development projects while the rehabilitation of internally displaced people and ongoing operation Zarb-e-Azb also needed money.

“In this situation, we were left with only two options; either to seek more debts or to raise money through taxation,” he added. However, Leader of Opposition in the National Assembly Khursheed Shah rejected Dar’s claim and said the taxes were imposed on the IMF’s behest. Speaking to the programme host Gharidah Farooqi, Shah said it was the incompetence of the government that it had failed to meet its budget targets.

“In the last 2-3 years, it has become a tradition to introduce mini-budgets after every annual budget,” he said, satirically adding that he had suggested to the government to four budgets every year.

He said even the members of the federal cabinet were unhappy with the government’s performance and believed that their vote bank was shrinking. “We will raise the issue of new taxes [in the parliament] and launch a protest against them along with other opposition groups,” Shah said.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 5^th,  2015.