Spiralling prices: Senators foresee public revolt over inflation

Legislators criticise amnesty scheme as corrupt elite were given a ‘free-hand to whiten money’.

ISLAMABAD:

Giving pure politics a break on Wednesday, legislators in the Senate decided to debate the government’s inflation policy instead.

Amid fears that the masses will take over the ‘elite’, members of parliament’s upper house warned the government of the steep rise in inflation and the failure of the police.

Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) senators from the opposition benches vowed that the recently introduced amnesty scheme, according to which tax evaders will be allowed to invest their ‘black money’ in new businesses, should not be passed without parliament’s approval.

“The privileged classes that have looted the masses of this country by evading taxes are being given a free-hand to ‘whiten’ their money,” said Senator Raza Rabbani, regarding the motion he had initiated in the house. He said when the previous PPP government introduced a similar amnesty scheme, it was termed as the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO). And this amnesty scheme is even bigger than the previous one, the senator alleged.



Rabbani said the prices of petroleum products, electricity and other commodities of daily use have skyrocketed and broken all records during the tenure of this government. “The government is oblivious to people’s problems and it has done nothing to fix them.”

Meanwhile, Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM)’s Senator Tahir Hussain Mashhadi criticised the hike in prices of electricity and gas, adding that people were not getting sufficient supply of any utilities either. “Petroleum prices in the international market have been on the decline while it was the opposite in Pakistan.”

The senator alleged that if the current state of the economy continues, people would be forced to revolt. “When the poor rise, they will pull the rich out of their safe houses and onto the roads,” said the MQM leader, adding that nothing would solve the crisis during that time.

Senator Abbass Afridi from the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata), who is in alliance with the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), also criticised the rising inflation and the subsequent ‘inaction’ by the government.

However, he questioned the inability of the provinces to collect taxes and pay them to the federal government. “A country where people do not pay taxes never prospers,” said Afridi. He questioned as to why the provinces, which were authorised by the NFC award to collect taxes, were not transferring the accumulated tax money to the federation.

Moreover, he urged opposition members to come up with suggestions for improving the dismal condition of the country’s economy besides criticising it.

PPP’s Saeed Ghani said the government printed currency notes worth Rs900 billion in five months that caused massive inflation.

The senator also came down hard on the government for its laptop scheme. The government could easily put the struggling Pakistan Steel Mills (PSM) back on track by approving a Rs28 billion bailout plan, he claimed. “However, the government chose to spend Rs24 billion on laptops.”

Senator Haji Adeel from the Awami National Party said the government should immediately focus on devising a comprehensive policy to check inflation and regulate the prices of electronic products.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 5^th, 2013.