Gilani for direct support to poor in budget

ISLAMABAD - Spelling out priorities of the PPP-led government in the upcoming budget, Prime Minister, Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani, here Wednesday said that low-income groups would be provided maximum relief with specific financial allocations.

He expressed these views while chairing a briefing on the budgetary matters here at the Prime Minister House. Syed Naveed Qamar, Minister for Finance, special assistants to Prime Ministers, Hina Rabbani Khar, Shehnaz Wazir Ali, Deputy Chairman Planning Commission, Salman Farooqi, members of the Economic Advisory Council and other high officials also attended the meeting.

While explaining government's priorities, the Prime Minister directed all the concerned bodies engaged in the budget-making process to incorporate objectives which could provide relief to the lowest-income groups, boost agriculture and manufacturing growth, help overcome energy and water shortage, develop human resource and avoid wastage of tax payers' money.

He said that providing relief to the poorest of poor who were facing hardships due to price-hike and shortage of power and other essential goods was the real objective of the elected government.

The Prime Minister said the government was committed to making a sizeable allocation in the budget for direct income support to the poorest and vulnerable groups.

He said the government would soon start rural-employment-generating-projects for at least 100 days per family especially in the poor and backward districts.

The meeting was informed that over 300,000 temporary jobs would be created in the Public Sector Development Programme of the federal government.

The Prime Minister said that skills development programmes for both rural and urban areas would also be initiated so that employment and productivity could be increased.

He said that social protection measures including health care and nutrition support for children especially girls, would also be put in place besides allocating resources for provision of safe drinking water.

The Prime Minister said that the government would also provide relief to government employees to compensate rising inflation especially to the low paid employees.

The Prime Minister directed that budget should also incorporate both fiscal and development support measures to boost growth in agriculture and manufacturing sectors which would include increasing incentives to enhance profitability, output productivity in agriculture by suitable adjustment in subsidies and timely support prices.

The Prime Minister added that fiscal and development support for manufacturing in terms of tax incentives, encouraging industrial clusters, support for technology transfer and facilitation of import of power generating small units were some of the areas to be given priority in the budget.

He further added: "fiscal and tax incentives for encouraging Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) should also be included through increased allocation of credit for this sector".

The Prime Minister said that auto industry was the fifth largest revenue earner of the country and steps should be taken to encourage local production of cars and motorcycles. This, he said, would generate job opportunities and economic activities in the country.

The Prime Minister said that overcoming energy and water shortages are the other areas which the government attaches high priority.

He called upon the need to incorporate concrete measures, which include construction of small dams in all federating units, provision of incentives for private investment in the power sector and increased allocation for water conservation and management.

The Prime Minister also stressed the need for the development of human resources and tangible measures to ensure their effective utilization.

In this regard, he said that this target be met through increased allocation for primary and secondary education, vocational training, concentrating on improving quality and maintaining standards and setting up and reviving employment exchanges for better information on job opportunities and assistance in placement.