Govt taxing only the affluent: minister

Rehman says four million jobs will be created.

LAHORE:

Finance Minister Mujtaba Shujaur Rehman said on Wednesday that the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government was taxing only the affluent.

The minister was speaking to PML-N activists at his residence. He said tax on luxury vehicles and large residences had been increased. Rehman said property tax had been increased for the first time after 14 years. He said the affluent would have to shoulder the increase in social spending.

Rehman said 4 million jobs would be created due to the government’s economic policies and the budget for the year. He said two million people would be provided with technical training to make them self-sufficient.  Rehman said the government was trying to increase the rate of economic growth to eight per cent in the next four years. He said this would pull out seven million people from poverty.

The minister said the government had prioritised the health and education sectors. Rehman said budgetary allocations for development projects during the current year were 17 per cent greater than last year.  Rehman said Rs274 billion had been allocated for education and Rs182 billion for the health sector.  He said this represented 26 and 12 per cent of the public expenditure.

He said 36 per cent of the development budget had been devoted to projects in south Punjab. He said this had been done to facilitate the timely completion of development projects.

He said provincial government had allocated Rs5 billion to provide relief to farmers in the budget. He said the federal government would provide a similar amount to farmers. Rehman said a Rs10 billion subsidy would also be provided to them to procure fertiliser.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 6^th, 2014.