ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Peoples Party chief Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari on Monday declared that the budget was prepared by officials from the International Monetary Fund who handed it to Prime Minister Imran Khan, lamenting that it would unleash a tsunami of inflation.
In a statement, Bilawal lamented that without deliberating on it, the budget was presented in the National Assembly.
He said that on every page of the financial plan, a recipe of economic murder of people had been scribbled.
He said the secrecy and stealth of the prime minister of imposing billions of rupees in indirect taxes had been caught. He foresaw a new tsunami of inflation gathering with the budget.
Bilawal said billions of rupees in new taxes had been levied on items of daily use which would definitely unleash a wave of inflation.
He said after the imposition of levy, petrol price would increase by Rs20 per litre and by levying indirect taxes on sugar, its price would surge by Rs7 per kilogram.
He vowed to defeat the government’s endeavour to impose indirect taxes on the public.
The PPP chief said as the companies would impose a 17 percent levy on crude oil and liquefied natural gas, the prices of petrol and gas are bound to hike, and people have to bear this burden.
He regretted that owing to the Covid-19 pandemic and ensuing restrictions, when the people started shopping online, the government put a sales tax on online shopping too.
He said it was tragic that the overseas Pakistanis were sending remittances which are more than the country’s exports to help their unemployed relatives in Pakistan.
