PTI president and former prime minister Imran Khan on Friday rejected budget For the new fiscal year, it dubbed “anti-people” and “anti-business”.
He said the budget is based on “unrealistic assumptions” on inflation and economic growth. In the budget, the government has set the target of inflation and economic growth at 11.5 percent and 5 percent respectively.
Imran further said that the weekly inflation as measured by the Sensitive Price Index (SPI) came down to around 24 per cent.
,[This] This shows that inflation will remain in the range of 25-30 per cent, which on one hand will devastate the common man, and on the other hand, will slow down the economic growth due to high interest rates.”
He lamented that all the tax reforms and pro-poor programs initiated during the PTI government were put on hold. “It’s an unimaginable, Puranas The (old) budget of Pakistan is creating more burden and misery for the country.”
Former energy minister Hammad Azhar, who also served as finance minister for a brief period during the tenure of the PTI government, said the budget was not of “special importance”.
Painting a gloomy picture of the country’s economic performance under the current coalition government, he said inflation will rise to 2-3 per cent while GDP growth will fall from 6 per cent to 2-3 per cent.
He claimed that the economy is unstable and the country is on the verge of “bankruptcy”. “The way they are moving, they will bring a storm of inflation and unemployment.
The direction to get the country out of the economic crisis and the uncertainty they (government) created should have been in the budget. [through] This budget.”
He alleged that the budget was presented in a hurry and all the facts contained in it were wrong.
Former Planning and Development Minister Asad Umar also referred to the SPI and asked, “Is this the situation before the budget? [is passed]What will happen later?”
Earlier in the day, Finance Minister Miftah Ismail Presented Budget for the coming financial year in the National Assembly. During his speech, he said that the government has to move towards “sustainable development”.
For FY23, the total deficit stands at Rs 3,798 billion, which is 4.9 per cent of GDP. Last year the deficit was estimated at 6.3 per cent of GDP.