Raza Rabbani bills budget vague, anti-labour

ISLAMABAD: Opposition in the Senate on Monday billed the new budget as vague, lacking seriousness and devoid of gravity of the ground realities and hence the nation was adrift, as the government lawmakers defended it, saying it was the best possible one in the given extraordinary situation.

The sitting was held on the heels of a letter written to Senate Chairman Muhammad Sadiq Sanjrani by the government Senator Khawaja Babar, who heads House Standing Committee on Delegated Legislation, and cited the emergency caused by the virus that the session be prorogued or adjourned till the time the House panel on finance, furnishes its report on the budget.

Minister for Narcotics Control Senator Muhammad Azam Swati poured arguably the harshest ever criticism on the Federal Bureau of Revenue (FBR), billing it the most corrupt institution in Pakistan’s history and he added to have mentioned it this way during the last federal cabinet meeting. “The prime minister was very kind to endorse my views and say that, yes, it is 100 per cent corrupt and said that is why we are going for automation,” the minister marked.

Senate chairman also endorsed Swati’s remarks against FBR, saying it was very true. The minister alleged that even an FBR inspector was making so much money, as they made collections for themselves. Sanjrani again chipped to say he is in the government.

The minister went on to allege that majority of FBR ‘people’ were hogs and re-emphasised that he was literally saying that they were hogs and even an inspector was making so much money that every minister was worried about it. He demanded of the government to go for automation and prayed to Allah Almighty to help the new FBR chairperson.

Swati said that expansion in the tax base was the key to take the people and the country forward. JI Senator Mushtaq Ahmad said that the minister himself said in his speech that FBR revenue collection losses to the national exchequer were Rs1,000 billion and asked if anyone from FBR was present, and to this, Sanjrani directed that FBR chairperson and three members i.e. policy, income tax and customs must be present before the session Wednesday. Afterwards, the Secretary Senatwrote to FBR the directions given by the Senate chairman.

Opening his speech during the budget discussion, Senator Mian Raza Rabbani quoted Alfred Housman, an English poet, who said, “the House of Delusions is cheap to build but drafty to live in”. Rabbani charged that this budget had nothing for the common man, as it was not the real budget, the actual budget had been made and kept with the IMF.

He pointed out that the budget did not provide any relief in the price hike, unemployment, shortage of drugs, shortage of petrol, the rising price of sugar and wheat. He noted that the vagueness and non-seriousness of the budget were reflected in the press conference of the adviser when he said, “That the provinces should formulate their budgets based on their own best assessments and the past performance of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR). For now, we have presented an annual budget like always, showing his distrust in institutions functioning under him when he says that the FBR has seldom achieved tax targets given to it”.

Rabbani said the new budget based on six pillars and these are; dictation from the IMF, crony capitalism, favouring cartelisation/mafias, imaginary revenue collection figures, curtailing the share of the provinces, and non-disclosures.

He claimed that this was a budget, which had been made on two video conferences with the IMF staffers in Washington and that never had the IMF so openly and blatantly interfered in setting the targets and dictating the budget.

“Never has a government so openly admitted that it is under compulsion and dictation of the IMF in setting its revenue collection targets and fixing budget allocations and priorities. It is on the behest of the IMF that the pays and pensions of the government employees have been frozen while the salaries of the special classes of employees which work for the government agenda of political victimisation i.e. FIA and NAB have already been increased and will be regularised through this budget,” he noted.

He added that IMF called for spending cuts and austerity measures and even dared to suggest that the defence expenditure should be frozen and the government could say nothing in response to it.

The government, he said, through various packages had benefited its cronies, who are advisers and ministers in the government and have a conflict of interest such as the award of the contract of a dam, the ongoing process of privatisation of Pakistan Steel Mills by sitting aside PPRA Rules etc.

“This government has promoted and pampered various cartels and mafias such as the construction mafia, real estate mafia, sugar mafia, wheat mafia, oil mafia, pharmaceutical mafia and the cement mafia,” he said and added the share of the revenue transfer under the NFC Award had been reduced in the proposed budget against the estimated share of the outgoing Fiscal Year 2019-2020.

Rabbani said the government had failed to disclose the terms and conditions of the various packages received from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar, China and the other loans and aid received from the IMF, World Bank and donor agencies in relation to fighting against the virus and that the government had till date not made public the conditionalities of the IMF agreement.

With reference to oil prices, he said the national media in the first week of May 2020, reported that oil firms had made windfall profits and caused a shortage of HSD by not meeting the mandatory stock cover.

“It is not the 18th Amendment or the 7th NFC Award, which are responsible for the financial problems being faced by the federal government. It has failed to limit its mandate to the ministries enumerated in the Federal Legislative List Part-I while the Federal Cabinet has expanded its ministries for subjects that fall under the ambit of CCI, it has also created ministries on subjects not enumerated in the Federal Legislative List, which solely are the domain of the provinces,” he said.

Rabbani said the international slogan of “I can’t breathe” had gained significance in Pakistan because now – the industrial worker can’t breathe – the peasant can’t breathe – the intellectual and professional can’t breathe – the media and government can’t breathe – the rikshawala and vendor can’t breathe – the provinces can’t breathe – the federation and parliament can’t breathe – the Constitution can’t breathe – let the Constitution breathe.