Pak: Imran Khan's party terms PML-N govt's federal budget "poisonous"
Jun 13, 2024
Islamabad [Pakistan], June 13 : Slamming Shehbaz Sharif's government budget for fiscal year 2024-25 as "poisonous", Imran Khan-founded Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf has said that the salaried class was suffocated by modifying the tax slabs, Geo News reported.
It added that despite making grandiose promises of a rescue package, it "cracked a joke by only allocating PKR 5 billion" for the agriculture sector.
The party, making a sharp attack at the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N)-led government, termed the Finance Bill 2025 presented by it in the National Assembly as a "poisonous budget" and a "bundle of contradictions", according to Geo News.
The federal budget for FY25, according to a PTI spokesperson, was presented "against the nation, employment, and economic development".
The former ruling party further accused the PML-N administration of being "actually dictated" by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and lacking control over the finalisation of the budgetary measures.
The PTI declared the growth rate of the gross domestic product (GDP) to be unrealistic, stating that it was set at 3.6 per cent and would not even increase to 2.4 per cent, as estimated by the World Bank, reported Geo News on Wednesday.
Additionally, the opposition party attacked the current administration for raising taxes on real estate, which would "only promote cash transactions," and for eliminating tax breaks for exporters.
The PTI also attacked the government of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif for raising the pay of government employees by up to 25 per cent and increasing the petrol charge to PKR 80 per litre, both of which would increase the financial burden on taxpayers, reported Geo News.
The federal government unveiled the 2024-25 budget on Wednesday, with a total outlay of PKR 18.9 trillion.
First-time finance minister Muhammad Aurangzeb presented the budget to the National Assembly in the midst of a noisy demonstration by opposition MPs from the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC), which is supported by the PTI.
The lawmakers raised anti-government banners, stood on their desks, and tore copies of the Finance Bill 2025.
