Shehbaz flays imposition of Rs360 bn new taxes

LAHORE: PMLN President and National Assembly Opposition Leader Shehbaz Sharif has slammed the mini-budget saying the government imposed new taxes of over Rs360 billion on people of Pakistan who are already being butchered by the government economic terrorism.

Reacting to presentation of the mini-budget in National Assembly, Shehbaz said he had warned that the budget 2021-22 presented by the PTI government was a fraud, and the real bombshells would drop on the nation through mini-budgets. He said the most vulnerable sections of society had been hit hard with the current disastrous mini-budget.

Shehbaz said not a single measure of relief for poverty-stricken Pakistanis was announced and the PTI government, in the mini-budget, taxed the essential commodities and food items. In addition to that, mobile-phones have been slapped with an advance income tax at the rate of 10-15 per cent. Out of these Rs360 billion of new taxes, Rs353 would be collected from sales tax while Rs7 billion would be from income tax, while there were certain other items as well, so the total tax was more than Rs360 billion, he explained.

“A whopping 17 per cent of taxes have been imposed on infant formula milk, dry milk, flavoured milk, any type of red chillies, yogurt, bread, buns, laptops, personal computers, ghee and cooking oil, oil seeds, greenhouse farming, drip agriculture, medicines, ingredients of pharmaceutical products, various machinery, gold and silver,” he added.

Shehbaz said the PMLN government gave free laptops to encourage advancement of learning in the IT sector and to produce more professionals, while the PTI even targeted that by imposing tax on computers and laptops. Taxing of oil and ghee would create a new crisis, he predicted.

He lashed out at the increase in the cost of medicines and key pharmaceutical materials. He said the government had not only made living beyond the reach of people, but also made dying affordable for people.

The PMLN president also strongly criticised the State Bank Amendment Act. He said the PMLN was not against State Bank's independence, but the manner in which the government proposed it was never seen or heard of in any country in the world.

He said as a regulator, it should be independent, but it was imperative that finance ministry and the State Bank should share the burden of decision making through mutual consultation. But the current act puts State Bank above and beyond Pakistan's control and it would only be answerable to the IMF, he claimed. No country has such a system, he added.

According to the IMF dictated bill, the SBP was only responsible to control inflation and it could not fund the government of Pakistan, no matter how grave or dire the situation might be. Recently, when the State Bank refused to fund government, private banks raised the interest rate, Shaukat Tarin himself termed it a disaster, he reminded. Shehbaz said approving the mini-budget would be like signing a death warrant for Pakistan's economy and its people.

Separately, in a tweet, Shehbaz Sharif said the policies and economic bad governance of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government were disastrous for the country as it linked the economic and political stability to the national security.

“Economic & political stability feeds directly into national security. PTI’s tenure in govt has been the worst by way of mismanaging economy & delivering poor governance,” he added.

“Never before have the citizens been this hopeless about their future. It has implications for national security,” Shehbaz said.

INP adds: Deputy chief of Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) and former parliamentary leader Liaquat Baloch has said the mini budget imposed on the nation under the IMF orders is a shackle of economic slavery. Addressing the Ittehad-e-Ummat Ulema-o-Mashaykh Conference in Faisalabad on Thursday, he said the amendment to the Finance Bill had mortgaged the national economy and given indirect control to India by abolishing the independence of the SBP.

Baloch said that for the prevention of economic slavery, not only the parliament but also people would have to take to the streets.

He said only a system based on Quran and Sunnah could bring justice to society. He claimed that to maintain the victory in Afghanistan and to protect the faith of Kashmiris and Palestinians, the determination of freedom is demanding unity of the Umma.