Govt all set to present mini-budget tomorrow

ISLAMABAD:

With the government all set to present its mini-budget in the lower house of parliament on Monday (tomorrow), the opposition parties have vowed to block its passage.

Leader of Opposition in the National Assembly Shehbaz Sharif on Saturday announced that the joint opposition would block the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) mini-budget, saying its passage would be tantamount to committing “national suicide”.

The NA opposition leader, who is also the president of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), said that a collective strategy would be devised through a consensus with the joint opposition to block and reject the mini-budget because it jeopardises the economic sovereignty of the country.

As the opposition parties braced to give a tough time to the government, President Dr Arif Alvi summoned a session of the National Assembly on December 13 (Monday) at 4pm.

“PPP rejects the IMF and the government’s mini-budget,” Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Senator Sherry Rehman said, adding that the terms of the agreement with the IMF are being kept secret.

On the government’s claim that the inflation would decrease in the coming months, the PPP senator questioned how was the government claiming that food prices would not go up, especially after increasing petroleum levy and sales tax that will make everything more expensive.

Regretting that the government is going to present another mini-budget in line with its disastrous agreement with the IMF, Sherry said, “Now, with 17% GST on many items, inflation will increase and put more pressure on those who are fed up with the PTI’s failed policies. The country is in dire need of an economic recovery plan.”

Surprisingly, a component of the joint opposition parties’ strategy would be shaking the conscience of lawmakers sitting on treasury benches. “All efforts would be made to shake the conscience of parliamentarians representing the government and its allies,” Shehbaz said in a statement, adding that the opposition benches would try to explain the devastating effects of the mini-budget on the country and its people to the treasury benches.

"The incumbent government has become a threat to national security,” Shehbaz said. “Trying to fix the crisis-hit economy with a mini-budget would be like treating cancer with aspirin.

“The government must resign instead of further destroying the economy with such a disastrous mini-budget prepared by the IMF.”

Reportedly, the government has finalised a mini-budget involving fiscal adjustments and expenditure cuts worth about Rs600 billion as part of an understanding with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Just five months ago, the government had presented a pro-growth budget. It has now announced presenting a mini-budget and taking steps that would pave the way for the approval of the IMF board in the middle of January for the release of $1 billion loan.

Shehbaz said the tsunami of the so-called “Tabdeeli” (change) has wiped away the economy, employment and the happiness from peoples’ lives. In addition, Shehbaz pointed out that people have still not been given the appropriate relief in petrol prices in accordance with the international price decrease.

The fruits of the economic relief package have still not reached the people, he said, adding that inflation and increase in electricity, gas, petrol and essential items’ prices have made life of masses even more miserable.

The opposition parties have been opposing the government’s plan to announce a mini-budget, fearing that it would further add to the miseries of the people and badly affect the already suffering economy of the country.

The opposition has long been accusing the government of failing to form effective economic policies that could bring the country out of its financial crisis or at least control the sky-rocketing prices of daily use items.

Expressing that the mini-budget would push the poor people under a huge burden of taxes, the opposition parties’ lawmakers said that the mini-budget was no solution to the economic problems. They said that the rupee depreciation against the dollar, jacking up of petroleum products’ prices as well as that of power and gas was the government’s plan to meet the requirements of the IMF to get the loan.