The Kisan package — a mirage

The Kisan package, announced by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif around the time of the local government elections, has not just faced incessant delays in its implementation, but some of its components are just a repeat of the budget measures announced in June 2015. In a recent briefing to the National Assembly Standing Committee on Finance, it was revealed that the government’s half-hearted attempts have resulted in most parts of the Rs341 billion package not being implemented, casting a huge question mark on the PM-level announcement. The much-trumpeted cash assistance was restricted to Punjab, as other provinces have so far been unwilling to delve into their wallets. However, some areas where progress has been made is subsidising the purchase of fertilisers and supporting sugar mills in exporting the commodity.

Repeating and remodeling measures and compiling them into a Rs341-billion package may manage to win the hearts of the farming community for a while, but persistent delays will not keep it quiet for too long. The package was announced supposedly to support low-income farmers bear the wrath of falling commodity prices. It was meant to uplift the low-income group and facilitate it in acquiring loans for machinery and raw material. Floods have not helped the farmers’ cause and the package was meant to mitigate some of their losses. But when the country’s finance secretary admits — five months after the package and eight months after the budget was announced — that it will take another two months to implement it on a larger scale, there are bound to be some raised eyebrows. For once, we would like the PML-N to act like a democratic, forthcoming government. Farmers can see through its shenanigans. It seems that true progress is usually only made close to the general elections when the government is in need of votes, and not when it is trying to pacify the IMF through a reduction in the budget deficit. It is all about timing for this business-minded government.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 20^th,  2016.

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