LAHORE- Former Finance Minister Hafeez Pasha has said that on the advice of the ADB and other monitory institutions 35 per cent increase in tariff on electricity would bring more budget deficit, inflation and miseries to the masses. The current budget deficit is 6 per cent and the government has pledged to reverse it on 4 per cent, which was a very hard task, he said. He was addressing to a Post Budget Seminar organised by Pakistan National Forum at a local hotel on Thursday. Former Governor Shahid Hamid, Syed Fakhir Imam, Salman Shah, Iftikhar Ali Malak, Tariq Saeed Sehgal, Vice Chancellor Punjab University, Mujahid Kamran, Col (Retd) Ikram Ullah and others spoke on the occasion. Hafeez Pasha from the current budget foresaw inflation increasing to double digits besides increase in budget deficit in coming days. He said increase in wages would cast additional Rs200 billion burdens on the provinces. He said the increase in salary would bring more inflation in term of increase in purchasing power of the urban middle class people as the government in that eventuality would be obliged to print more currency notes. He negated the government claims to reverse the budget deficit to 4 per cent and said, it will not be possible with the present economic approach. The government claims to decrease budget deficit by increasing tariff on electricity and other items, he said and added, increase in tariff of electricity will only increase corruption and power theft. He said the deficit target would not be achieved by increase in tariff. He said the government should focus on the individual consumer items prices, which were affecting the individual baskets, adding, the government needs to adjust prices of these items compare with the international market. Shahid Hamid emphasised the need of good governance and said that the MNAs and MPAs were not representing the laymen but the elite class with little concern to the masses problems. He said a real leadership was needed to bring the state policies according to the wishes of poor and the requirement of the middle class. Fakhar Imam also emphasised the need of legislation which does not unduly protect interest of the governing class to provide it every facility. He said half of the sugar industry is in the possession of the parliamentarians and how they would be agree to bringing legislation on this industry according to the national interest. He questioned why did in the past 60 years we failed to legislate on manufacturing industry of those things we import spending huge foreign exchange. Salman Shah suggested for imposing agriculture tax and the need to handover the area to local government. He also suggested for taking steps to promote foreign investment, revenue generation, good governance as well as to eliminate white elephants in the public sector. Industrialist Iftikhar Malik said he was in fix as to how the government would put the country on the road to development in the absence of energy, policies of employment, self reliance, good governance, law and order, and no plan for the youth employment. He said it was a pity that growth of industry was not yet a priority of the government while no remarkable performance was being shown by the agri sector. Industrialist Tariq Saeed Sehgal laid stress on setting a right political economy. He urged the political parties to play their role in shaping economic policies. He said collective programme of cutting down non-development expenditure and simplicity are the need of the hour to give a breather to the economy. Vice Chancellor Punjab University, Mujahid Kamran expressed concern over the cut made on the budget of higher education and said, a substantial allocation for this sector was a must in order to meet global requirements.