PML-N accuses govt of manipulating budget numbers

The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz has accused the government of manipulating numbers in the budget presented for the next fiscal years.

Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, the senior PML-N leader, while addressing a press conference on Sunday, took the federal government to task over “impracticable financial goals”, Dawn reported.

He said that new taxes worth Rs383 billion had been imposed in the new budget. “Of them, indirect taxes amount to Rs265bn, which clearly indicates the poor will have to bear them,” he said.

The PML-N leader said that the claims of income generation made by the government were not backed by a concrete source to achieve that target.

“In its last three years, the government couldn’t even increase its net income by 20 per cent and now they claim they will boost the same by 24pc in the new fiscal year,” said Abbasi.

He said that the budget figures revealed that the government would obtain Rs252bn through privatisation. “But we cannot generate income by selling assets,” he added.

Abbasi termed it an “ATM budget”, saying it benefitted those who plundered national wealth and created shortages of sugar. “This is also a budget for the friends,” he alleged.

The PML-N leader questioned how the provinces would share revenue by curtailing their development, saying the provincial surplus was Rs240bn previously and now it was Rs570bn.

He noted that liquefied natural gas (LNG) was one key area for revenue generation and the government had imposed a 17pc sales tax on it. He said the tax collection target could not be achieved without increasing petrol and diesel prices by at least Rs30.

Abbasi further called upon the finance minister to publicise the comparison of export figures in 2018 and now.

He said that Pakistan had reached 6pc growth when the PML-N was in power and the trade deficit stood at Rs35bn, while it was Rs 30bn now. “This is primarily because no development is taking place now,” the former prime minister added.

Contradicting the government’s claim of achieving bumper crops, he said: “We are still a net importer of food so how did bumper crops witness growth? Our cotton production nosedived to seven million bales from 12m. Is this what you call bumper crop?”

He alleged that the budget figures did not actually matter to the government because there would be another finance minister by the time the next budget was presented.

The senior PML-N leader said that 20m people had fallen below the poverty line in the three years of the government, adding that the current rulers seemed to have “no strategy” to bring down inflated power, gas, and water bills.

He said that the “construction mafia” was getting prime benefits in the budget. “The government has allowed people to invest in a sector which has amnesty and those with black money are buying homes, while the poor are unable to afford their own homes,” the PML-N leader alleged.