Freeze on Presidency budget demanded

ISLAMABAD - The National Assembly and the Senate opened the debate on Finance Bill 2008-09 on Saturday. Leader of House in Senate Mian Raza Rabbani, demanded freezing the expenditures of Aiwan-e-Sadr, as he was highly critical of the budget provision for its enhancement. He also said that president must not remain part of the Parliament.

Meanwhile, Opposition Leader in the National Assembly Chaudhary Pervaiz Elahi opening debate on the Finance Bill termed it as an anti-poor budget and charged that coalition government led by Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) was formulating policies against its election manifesto and slogan of Roti (bread), Kapra(clothes) and Makan (house) was set behind.

Pervaiz said that the previous government had allocated Rs 40 billion subsidy for wheat in the budget but now the present government had reduced it to half. The price of wheat and flour would increase due to the reduction in subsidy, he said.    

"There is shortfall of Rs 77 billion in development budget while lesser amount has been allocated for energy sector," he said, adding, the raise made in defence budget was insufficient.

The Leader of Opposition further said that the first budget of every government reflected its vision and policies for next five years but after reviewing the budget 2008-09, it was found that it neither had any vision nor well determined direction.

Commenting on textile industry, Ch Pervaiz Elahi said that no incentives were given to Power looms industry and Rs. 19 billion reserved for Research and Development of textile industry were terminated.

Criticizing the government over its pledges regarding provision of accommodation to common people of the country, he said that the government imposed tax on the plots and houses. The poor people have to pay Rs 100 per yard on plot and Rs 50 per feet on the house while in the previous government those taxes were paid by builders or contractors, he said. "Now, the construction of a house for the poor is remains out of his approach," he said.       

The GDP remained 5.8 per cent in the previous government despite continuous strikes and processions by the lawyers' community, the incidents of terrorism and the unfortunate incident of the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, he added.

The Opposition Leader said the government had held up the Kala Bagh Dam (KBD) project but it had no clear policy regarding alternative power projects. He added that Rs. 300 million allocated for Bhasha Dam were not even sufficient for arranging the accommodation of people needed for its construction.

The Opposition Leader said that the incumbent government had reduced the Rs. 113.5 billion subsidy in the tenure of the previous government to Rs. 74 billion, which would not only increase the duration of load-shedding but would also soar the rates of the electricity. The amount of Rs 15 billion allocated for the energy sector was also a negligible amount, he added.

He said that though the subsidy on DAP fertilizer was enhanced from Rs 500 to Rs 1200 yet during their rule when subsidy was Rs 500 the bag of DAP fertilizer was available for Rs 1000 and the price of the same bag of fertilizer was around Rs 3700 and Rs 1200 subsidy would become meaningless for farmer.

Chaudhary Pervaiz Elahi said that the prices of diesel would be increased by Rs 10 per litre due to reduction in the subsidy, adding that the previous government had given subsidy of Rs 175 billion.

The Opposition had set an example by giving cordial and friendly atmosphere to Federal Finance Minister Naveed Qamar to announce the budget, as it was never witnessed in Parliamentary history, he said.

He said that he had never witnessed such government in country's history, which had taken oath from the President whom they considered as unconstitutional and illegal.  

Participating in debate on budget, Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) Information Secretary Ahsan Iqbal described 2008-09 budget as the most suitable budget in the worst circumstances but he regretted the less allocations for the education sector and urged to increase it sufficiently during next three years.

He alleged that the previous Punjab government had spent billions of rupees on advertisement of "Parra Lekha Punjab" but practically did little. "Many new schools can be opened if these billions of rupees were spent for education. There are now 60 per cent science and 90 per cent computer labs in schools," he said.       

Ahsan mentioned various projects of the PML-N government in Punjab like upgrading education institutions in rural areas, uniform education system, introducing new curricula for excellence pursuit and revision of service structure for teachers.