After less than a full year in power, the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf government is being blamed for landing the country in one of its worst economic meltdowns. Even the most optimistic of governments cannot ask for honeymoons that last a year. The government needs to start delivering rather than continuing to harp on the tales of corruption during previous governments. Those looking for something to praise the government for will have a hard time of finding something in the budget which appears to bear more of the International Monetary Fund stamp than the PTI vision. The cash-strapped government had caved in to the IMF demands even before the budget. It devalued the currency, withdrew subsidies on utilities and raised the discount rate. Given that the economic crisis is a reality, the government might have done itself a favour by setting realistic goals for the fiscal year 2019-2020. Hearing its economic wizards talk one would think that they are more into fantasy and the imaginary. Just look at the target for revenue collection, the Federal Board of Revenue has been tasked with collecting Rs 5.55 trillion – extremely ambitious by any standards. The taxation measures are said to be driven by the Medium Term Policy Framework. The FBR, we are told, will be relying more on tapping the untapped sectors for revenue than improving collection from the familiar taxpayers. The rhetoric is a hard sell. The government can hardly be accused of introducing any measures to create a harassment-free culture for taxpayers, uniformity in tax rates, a transparent mechanism for tax collection or incentives for new taxpayers. The government plans to cut its own tax expenditure (Rs 540.98 billion) by slashing tax exemptions and concessions accorded to various sectors of the economy. The dismal picture the Economic Survey paints of the outgoing year shows that these concessions did not yield the desired results. The tax rates have been enhanced for both the salaried and non-salaried classes. The threshold slabs have been slashed. The decision, tough on the middle class, is going to be very unpopular. There has been no change in tax rates, however, for the corporate sector. The rate has been frozen at the present level (29 per cent) for the next two years. The expenditures section is replete with the word ‘austerity’. But austerity alone cannot achieve the goal of reducing primary deficit to 0.6 per cent of the GDP. The government needed to cut the defence budget and plug waste in governance by eliminating ministries like health and education, which are now provincial subjects. It balked. Contrary to government claims of a slight relief for the people, the budget fails utterly to satisfy any segment of the society. *