On the second day of the debate on federal budget 2010-11, the lawmakers strongly opposed the government decision of not privatising state-run institutions, which eat up huge funds including Pakistan Steel Mills, PIA, Pepco, National Highway and Passco.
MQM Senator Babar Ghauri, who is also the Federal Minister for Ports and Shipping said, on one hand, the government intends to impose Value Added Tax on the poor to generate revenue and on the other, a huge amount is given to these institutions, which is wasted due to corruption, irregularities and inefficiency.
He said there was no need for levying VAT, rather the government should privatise these institutions and impose agriculture tax on big farmers to generate revenue. He said the government should get rid of the IMF and rely on some indigenous sources. The minister also recommended reducing sale tax rate instead of increasing it to 17 percent.
PML-Q Senator Salim Saifullah also proposed sell-off of these institutions to save huge funds. He was of the view that corruption rate in the government has increased and it would be difficult to make progress without controlling this menace.
Saifullah pointed out that his province is experiencing worse poverty, unemployment and shortage of electricity, but the government never concentrated on the miseries of the people who have already suffered from terrorism. He urged the government to fulfil the promises made with the people of Khyber Pakhtoonkhwah. He urged the government to reduce banks interest rate to encourage investment.
Dr Saeeda Iqbal of PPP defended the government policies, saying that it presented an ideal budget despite the financial constraints putting the blame on previous regimes. She was of the view that the proposed imposition of VAT would overcome the tax evasion in different sectors.
JUI-F Senator Khalid Mehmood Soomro said the government should shift to the Islamic banking system to run the economy smoothly. He added that to overcome the economic crisis, government should control the rampant corruption, give up taking loans, check the extravagant spending and recover the money from defaulters who got written off loans at different times since independence. He said the present government took $25 billion loans during last two years, which is a record.
He also proposed to stop giving funds to PIA, Pepco, Passco, Railways and Steel Mills. Senator Soomro alleged that Rs 3 billion were spent last year on the carpeting of streets in the prime minister's constituency in Multan, which was increased to Rs 6 billion this year.
The claim was later dispelled by a PPP Senator and close ally of the Prime Minister, Senator Salahuddin Dogar, saying that the funds are not for streets rather for mega development projects. Soomro also pointed out that the government failed to reduce oil prices in line with the international market.