All factions of the society are
eagerly looking forward to the incoming budget 2021-2022 as it is the most
important policy document for a country affecting the lives of every Pakistani.
The government has agreed to bring
down the current year’s development programme to Rs1.169tr against the budgeted
target of Rs1.324tr. The indirect taxes are committed to be increased from
Rs1000 billion to Rs1300 billion; adding to dangerous levels of inequality. The
government should avoid playing with the fudged figures and also should announce
to withdraw the control of the Statistics Division from the Ministry of
Planning Development and place it under The Council of Common Interests (CCI).
The government has also made a commitment with the IMF to not consider any tax
exemption or tax amnesty in gas tariffs in the future. All of these taxes and
increased tariffs lead to the price hike. The present Finance Minister has to
be a hard negotiator with the IMF to get the tax relief and we must renegotiate
the repayment with the World Bank and try to have the payment deferred due to
the ongoing pandemic.
Even the man that the PTI had
presented as its financial wizard, Asad Umar stepped down from the cabinet when
he returned from Washington after negotiating a deal with the IMF. The decision
left many with a feeling of dismay, since immediately after taking over power,
the PTI had pressed the panic button on the economy. The impression that PTI
had given to Pakistan, as well as the rest of the world, that Asad Umar was the
man to fix the economy, was tarnished badly. Under his only 9 months of tenure
as Finance Minister (Finance Messiah), the growth rate had fallen by 2 percent,
inflation had already hit almost ten percent, gas prices had jumped up by over
40 percent and the Pakistani currency was constantly depreciating.
If we want to get rid of the IMF
and its stringent conditions, we need to follow the example set by Turkey as it
stabilised its economy and got away with the IMF trap. Tayyip Erdoğan became
prime minister when Turkey was a country that suffered from constant economic
blows despite the fact that the rest of the world was doing fine economically.
Now Turkey is thriving and its economy is still growing while the world is
suffering from an economic crisis since 2008.
In Pakistan, with a 14 percent
inflation rate, there is a 30 percent rise in the poverty rate, 80.5 million
people are standing on the edge of the poverty line due to which 15 to 20
people are ending their lives by committing suicide daily. Renegotiations are
needed to be done with the IMF; the Government should focus on revising the
targets with them. There should be a target for a 1 percent decrease in the
budget deficit. There should be an increase in the capacity for the development
budget by raising the development spending by 20 percent. The Finance Minister
needs to do something on the expenditure side as money should not only be
released rather it should be spent somewhere, which requires capacity building.
There should be a visible focus of spending on the projects which actually
generate revenue, just not on useless things like langar khanas and tiger or
panda forces. The Federal Government should not spend on provincial projects as
they should be a provincial subject.
In the long term, a sharp focus
should be on investment in human health and education which are the most
ignored sectors. The crippled health sector has been fully exposed during the
present Coronavirus pandemic.
I would like to suggest the
following for this budget:
The salaries of the government
servants should be increased by 75 percent. The government should announce a
special package for the private and daily wages employees for enhancement of
their salaries by their employers. It should allocate special funds for
self-employment business opportunities enabling those who have lost their jobs
due to COVID-19, to get start their own small business. It should allocate at
least Rs.150 billion for the construction of hospitals/medical centres for the
treatment of COVID-19 patients and for the purchase of modern medical
equipment, protective kits (PPEs) for doctors, paramedical staff, army,
rangers, police and other law enforcement agencies who are on the frontline
during COVID-19.
The salaries of the medical and
Para-medical staff should be enhanced up to 75 percent. The salaries of the
media workers shall be enhanced by 50 percent by their respective employers.
The government has allocated only Rs100 billion under the corona stimulus package
for fertiliser subsidy, loan remissions, and other relief to the farmers, which
may be enhanced to Rs.100 billion. A special tax relief package should be given
for agriculture i.e. wheat crops and livestock, dairy farming, etc. to provide
relief to small farmers. Our future lies in agriculture and hence farmers
should be supported with good economic packages as an incentive to increase the
yield and to modernise agricultural farming. The government should allocate
more funds for the management of rainwater reservoirs in every district as a
national water conservation programme. Special funds should also be allocated
for the construction of new small/mini dams in every district like China. The
government should enhance the budgetary allocation for online education
development programmes through IT/internet access, especially in remote areas.
The budgetary allocation of the Higher Education Commission (HEC) should be
enhanced to Rs100 billion. The government should allocate funds for improvement
in the aviation sector and upgrade airports all over the country. The budget
for LEAs must be doubled for their capacity building to ensure the rule of law.
There should be a substantive increase in improving the investigation process
by the provision of modern investigation tools and logistics to FIA and the
Police. According to the Federal Ombudsman, the national overcrowding rate in
Pakistan’s prisons is 134 percent so the government should allocate 5 billion
for each province to improve jails standard and the food per jail manual. The
government must finance easy loans for cheap housing schemes through house
building corporations. Special enactment may be brought to save the people from
defrauding from private house building finance companies if allowed in the private
sector.
The article was published in The Nation on June 9, 2021, link to the original article-- https://nation.com.pk/09-Jun-2021/budget-2021-22-some-proposals
No comments:
Post a Comment