ISLAMABAD The legislators in the Upper House of the Parliament while participating in the debate on the budget focused more on the privatisation of public sector enterprises causing huge loss to the national kitty, decrease in the GST by 1 percent and cut on the expenditures of Presidency and PM House. All the members who participated in the debate stressed on these points in addition to the further increase in labour wages as announced in the labour policy and enhancement in the education budget that was considerably decreased in the proposed budget. Federal Minister for Ports and Shipping, Babar Ghauri, on the second day of the general debate, opposed the Value Added Tax (VAT), what he termed it a 'bombshell saying, it would destroy the economy instead of reviving it. He made recommendations for inclusion of agriculture sector in the tax net, reduction in GST by 1 percent and raise in minimum labour wages up to 10,000. He also proposed removal of 3 percent service charges on all bank transactions and new taxes on gas tariff as proposed in the budget, adding that the cut in educations budget was totally unfair. He also stressed the need to privatise the public sector organisations facing fiscal crisis like PIA, Pakistan Railways and Pakistan Steel Mills etc. He quoting the Finance Minister said that these caused loss of Rs 245 billion to the national exchequer. Salim Saifullah of PML-Q also backed Babar Ghauri on the points of decrease in GST as well as privatisation of the sick public sector enterprises, saying that only WAPDA caused loss of Rs 1 billion to the national kitty after every two days. Dr Khalid Somroo while taking part in the debate recommended stipends for unemployed graduates and postgraduates and increase in educations budget up to 3 percent. Senator S M Zafar remarked that the budget speech of the Finance Minister was itself a charge-sheet against the Government. He while quoting the Minister said that the economy of Pakistan was so unstable that it might fall down anytime. He quoted many parts of the budget speech of Finance Minister, Dr Hafiz Sheikh, related to ever-highest inflation rate, unstable economic recovery, the worst mismanagement of some corporations and inefficiency of some public sector departments. He hinted at the imposition of financial emergency, if such economic conditions persisted for a long time. He also gave suggestion of signing a Charter of Economic Management on the pattern of Charter of Democracy (CoD) as well as for the establishment of more think tanks in the country. Some appreciation for the Finance Minister also came from Professor Khurshid Ahmed of Jamaat-i-Islami, who termed the speech of Minister 'half-truth. He also talked about the increase in growth rate, alleviation of poverty, solutions to food insecurity, inflation, power crisis and unemployment. He said that the money spent on supplementary grants in the last fiscal year was totally unjustifiable and termed these grants a total deviation from the budget. He stressed the need to introduce new legislation for across the board accountability. He said that the good governance, financial discipline and economic sovereignty should be parameters of the finance policy. At the end of the proceedings, some senators hailing from Balochistan and Sindh pointed out the atrocities being faced by the people of their areas due to tropical cyclone Phet. The house was adjourned till 4:30 pm Thursday.