Daily Times

Minister of State for Finance and Revenue Dr Ayesha Ghous Pasha on Friday said that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif would announce major austerity measures in all the government institutions to control the fiscal deficit by minimizing the government expenditures.

“The Prime Minister has already formed a Commission to finalize the austerity measures and he himself would announce the recommendation finalized by the Commission,” the state minister said while speaking on the floor of the Upper House of the Parliament here.

She said all the cabinet members of the federal government had already voluntarily announced not to get their salaries from the national exchequer.

Ms Paha said the PDM government was acting upon the agreement made by the PTI regime with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) only to save the state at the cost of their politics.

Referring to the Finance (Supplementary) Bill, 2023 presented by the government in both Houses, she said the government had no option but to take tough decisions as the country’s economy was on the verge of default.

“No doubt inflation is high and the people are extremely worried but the point is that this is the time to make structural adjustment because without this we will sink in further darkness”, she added.

However, she said that to safeguard the extremely poor segment of the society from the inflationary shocks, the government had decided to raise the allocation for Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) by Rs 40 billion to Rs 400 billion.

The minister also made it clear that whether the government go with the IMF programme or not, it would have to make structural reforms in key areas of the economy as without it the country’s economy would not get stabilized.

The state minister of finance said that the recently increased tariffs in electricity and gas sectors would not apply to the small consumers.

She called upon all political parties and other stakeholders to support the government in this hour of need as the country badly needed tough decisions to bring it out of economic crisis.

After her speech the Senate Chairman adjourned the Senate Session to meet again on Monday (February 20, 2023).