KARACHI - Pakistan Peoples Party’s (PPP) Sindh MPA Sharmila Farooqui said on Sunday that PTI government’s federal budget will raise more price hike and unemployment as it is another deceit with masses like the past three budgets because there is no clue yet to one crore jobs, thousands of shelter houses, and ten billion trees promised by the Prime Minister of the country.

The prices of not only food items but everything have gone high in PTI regime which has failed to provide “Roti, kapra, aur makaan” that it had promised, she said in a statement. However, she said: “History stands witness to the Roti, kapra aur makaan promises that the Pakistan People’s Party fulfilled.”

The budget aims to raise Rs5,829 billion in FBR taxes; with an economic growth target of 4.8 percent and an inflation target of 8 percent. The government would need a 11.2 percent increase in tax collection over and above inflation and growth to achieve this. As a result, people will face more burden of taxes and ultimately poor and middle-class people will face its implications.

She said that the government has slapped at least Rs383 billion worth of additional taxes and nearly 70 percent are regressive in nature and highly inflationary, which is also an anti-people act. New taxes have been imposed on almost every important consumable and daily use item, including sugar that will now be taxed at a retail stage and its price will go up by about Rs7 per kilogram, she said. 

The provinces are expected to get Rs3.411 trillion under the NFC. However, this time the government did not give the figures of the revised estimates of allocation to provinces, which is also a deceit.

“Independent economists estimate that two crore Pakistanis have been forced below the poverty line into abject poverty. This means an additional one and a half crore children go without adequate food and nutrition every day,” Sharmila said.

She said: “The Prime Minister always makes false claims about reducing price hike. How will the price hike come down when the prime minister’s gross salary has been proposed to be allocated at a whopping Rs2.441 million for the next fiscal year? It is pertinent to note that the gross salary of the premier is currently Rs201,574. The amount for PM House expenses is suggested to be Rs210.80 million.”

Sharmila said that the federal government had already devastated Pakistan’s economy as the economic growth targets had nose-dyed in the last three years, depriving people of basic facilities of life like electricity and uplift infrastructure.

“The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) increased salaries by up to 150 percent during its federal tenure, so that the burden of the global economic crisis does not fall on the common citizen,” said Sharmila.