IMF employees have taxed everything: Bilawal

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has slammed the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government for presenting a “selected anti-people budget” terming it as a method of economic murder that will lead the country to the point of no return.

“It is evident the IMF employees prepared the budget and taxed everything and then gave it to Imran Khan. Yet, the prime minister went ahead and presented it without any consideration, nor did he pay heed to the plight of the poor,” he said in a statement on Monday.

Bilawal asked the nation to note the indirect taxes imposed by the PM. “Instead of applying direct taxes, Imran Khan is robbing the nation by levying indirect taxes worth billions of rupees," he said.

Highlighting the atrocious amount of indirect taxes imposed, the PPP chairman said, an increase of Rs20 per litre on petrol and Rs7 per kg of sugar is occurring. He said gas and petrol prices will also go up when companies give 17 percent sales tax on crude oil and LNG.

Bilawal warned the nation that indirect taxes worth billions of rupees imposed on every commodity, used by common people, would soon expose the country to a new tsunami of inflation. He said people started shopping online to avoid coronavirus, but Imran Khan imposed sales tax on online shopping as well. “So where will the common man go now?" he questioned.

Meanwhile, Bilawal said while talking to journalist at the Parliament that the PTI government has been standing on the container for three years and trying to run the government from there but this experience has failed.

“Today, the opposition leader was not allowed to tell the nation the realities of the economic situation because the government did not want that the real figures reach the people of Pakistan,” he said.

Bilawal said the government did not show the figures of inflation and unemployment in the Economic Survey of Pakistan so that it can hide its failure. “Every citizen of Pakistan is drowning in the tsunami of inflation and this is the real face of Imran Khan’s change,” he said.

The PPP chairman reiterated his party’s support to bring no-confidence motion against speaker National Assembly and deputy speaker saying that they are not playing their role, and the PPP offers all members to the opposition leader in the no-confidence motion against them.

Bilawal said every citizen is suffering due to historic inflation and unemployment by the PTI government and knows the failure of the government. “The government cannot hoodwink the people,” he said. Bilawal vowed to give tough time to the government in the Parliament.