Common man’s ordeal
The budget proposals for fiscal year 2022-23 are more on the edgy side, and have little in substance to pacify the common man. Though the government has made the pendulum swing to lessen the impact of inflation and soaring oil and energy prices, how beneficial that would be seems quite unrealistic. With an abnormal hike in the prices of petroleum products, coupled with an increase in gas and electricity tariff, the token raise in the salaries of civil servants is of decimal proportion. Likewise, a 5% raise in pension and the massive private sector counting on the benevolence of their employers will lead to more frustration and unrest. The micro-economy is in tatters and the lack of control of the local administrations over demand and supply is making life untenable. The subsidies format on wheat and cooking oil, as well as the cash relief for the downtrodden, is an arithmetic jugglery of those who play with statistics, and have never been consoling the poor.
The budget, however, has a flip side too. The Finance Bill proposes a levy of Rs50 per litre on petroleum along with 17% sales tax in an attempt to generate Rs300 billion, and this paints a doomsday scenario for those dependent on fixed income. Likewise, Rs740 billion worth of new taxes and the broadening of canvas to pinch the expatriates with an annual 1% of tax on the value of their foreign assets, and those in the trade of real estate, will surely be contested for an auto-correction.
A common impression is that the government is more inclined in striking a deal with the IMF. That is why there isn’t much elaboration on the agriculture and industry sides in the budget, and the developmental allocations too are flimsy. Moreover, the donors’ inquisition to squeeze whatever subsidies and lower-lying tariffs are there currently will have a severe backlash. This elicits a clear-cut policy approach, and one that should bail out the depressed economy for all times to come. This is where the enigma of economy and common man lies. A sliding rupee as well as price index rising to unseen heights are signs of catastrophe. The middle class and the lower strata are surely in a fix.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 11th, 2022.
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