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ISLAMABAD, (MANEND NEWS): The National Assembly on Tuesday
passed the Finance Bill 2021, giving legal effect to the budgetary
proposals for the next fiscal year. 172 members voted in favor of the
financial year 2021-22 budget and 138 opposed it.
It was presented by Minister for Finance and revenue Shaukat Fayaz
Ahmed Tarin.
The National Assembly session was held under the chairmanship of
Speaker Asad Qaiser where Prime Minister Imran Khan was also
present. Pakistan People’s Party Co-Chairman and former president
Asif Ali Zardari, PPP Chairman Bilawla Bhutto Zardari, recently
released PML-N Parliamentary Party Leader Khawaja Muhammad Asif
and other leaders attended the session. Meanwhile PPP senior leader
Syed Khursheed Ahmed Shah and Ali Wazir attended the session on
production orders. However, the Leader of Opposition in the National
Assembly Mian Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif was not present in the
budget session.
The amendments proposed by the opposition in the finance bill were
rejected by the House.
Having a total outlay of 8,487 billion rupees, the budget 2021-22
envisages incentives and measures for various sectors to promote
business activities and provide relief to the general public.
The federal employees have been granted 10 percent ad hoc relief
besides 10 percent increase in pensions. The minimum wage has been
enhanced to 20,000 rupees per month.
The annual PSDP has been increased by forty percent from six
hundred and thirty billion rupees to nine hundred billion rupees. One
hundred billion rupees have been earmarked for construction of hydro
power dams including Dasu, Diamer Basha, Mohmand and Neelum
Jhelum.
The growth target of 4.8 percent has been set for the next fiscal year
with tax collection target of 5829 billion rupees.
Allocation for Ehsaas program has been enhanced from 210 billion
rupees to 260 billion rupees for the next fiscal year.
An amount of 682 billion rupees have been earmarked for subsidies
which were 430 billion rupees during the outgoing fiscal year.
The budget provides zero rating to export of IT services. Tax relief
has been given for locally manufactured cars up to 1000CC whilst
various tax exemptions and concessions have also been given to
encourage the manufacturing of electric vehicles in the country.
Sixty six billion rupees have been allocated for the Higher Education
Commission and ten billion rupees for Kamyab Jawan Program.
The budget also envisages allocation of 1.1 billion dollars for
procurement of anti covid vaccine.
Earlier, Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin moved a motion in the lower
house of the parliament to begin the proceedings. The minister
assured the house that the targets set in the budget will be achieved.
According to him, the budget has given a roadmap to uplift four million
households by providing interest-free loans to them.
He further stated that the households will be provided Sehat Insaaf
cards, adding that the inhabitants will be equipped with technical
skills.
According to the minister, the core inflation currently stands at seven
percent. He admitted that prices of food items had spiked, but said
that it was because of the agriculture sector being ignored in the past.
The government, he added, was spending Rs62 billion to uplift the
economy. Exemptions valuing billions of rupees were being given on
account of fertilizers and pesticides.
Simultaneously, he added, provincial governments were also spending
funds on the agriculture sector. Tarin added that the tax to GDP ratio
should be enhanced to 20 per cent to take the country forward
economically.
He added that the government did not believe in ‘harassment’.
However, he added that action will be taken against willful tax
defaulters.
He said that the government was focusing on the agriculture sector
which had been ignored in the past. “We are taking direct action,
something that has never been done before,” he thundered, adding
that the government was forced to go to the International Monetary
Fund (IMF) due to the fiscal deficit it inherited when it came into
power.
He said that the government will go after willful tax defaulters, adding
that it was necessary to enhance the tax to GDP ratio to 20 per cent.
The minister also dispelled the opposition’s claims that indirect taxes
had been imposed, adding that majority of Pakistan’s trade sector was
not under the tax net. “Consumers are paying it but we are not
receiving it,” he said, adding that the government will also focus on
this.
PPP leader Syed Khursheed Shah criticised the budget because of the
addition of a multitude of taxes prior to the finance minister presenting
it in the NA. He estimated that the government had proposed taxes
collectively amounting to around Rs1,100-1,200 billion. The budget
failed to meet expectations, he regretted.
Shah added that a good budget ensured that people had food on their
tables as “people’s wellbeing is symbolic of a good economy”. The PPP
leader also lamented that health and education sectors remained
largely ignored in the budget this time around as well.
He particularly expressed concern over the fast population growth in
the country, raising doubts that the government had any plan to meet
with the demands of this fast growing population.
The rapid population growth is an “atom bomb in the making”, he
remarked, asking whether the finance minister considered this factor
while devising the budget.
“We need to think of incentives to limit the population growth,” and
the federal government should address the issue, he stressed.
He further said the government had failed to provide any relief to
farmers in the budget. “Please make this budget a budget for the
people,” he implored.
PPP MNA Dr. Syeda Nafeesa Shah criticised the government’s budget
measures, saying that the Federal Bureau of Revenue (FBR) was being
“turned into another NAB (National Accountability Bureau)”.
Shah said that no one should allow the FBR to be given the powers of
judge and jury, adding that some points in the budget were too vague
to understand.
PML-N MNA Engineer Khurram Dastagir Khan lashed out at the
government, saying that its proposed financial policies “target” the
middle and poor classes. “The government will not be able to achieve
its tax collection target next year,” he said. “The summary of the
government’s economic policy is this: the rich remain satisfied while
the poor are in pain,” he added.
The PML-N lawmaker said that the budget aims to increase sales tax
by Rs383bn. Dastagir also held the government responsible for the
recent gas shortage in Karachi.
After the clause by clause reading was completed, a voice vote was
conducted by the NA speaker and the budget was passed.
The opposition did not challenge the voice vote as they knew they did
not have the required numbers. The house will now meet today
(Wednesday) at 11:30 AM.