Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting Farrukh Habib said on Saturday that all segments of the society, except opposition, had described the Federal Budget 2021-22 as pro-people, business-friendly and the balanced one. In a statement, he said all the strata including labourers, salaried class, industrialists and farmers appreciated the growth-oriented budget, asking the opposition leaders to refrain from misleading the nation through distorted facts. Referring to the ruckus of the opposition parties led by Shehbaz Sharif and Bilawal Bhutto Zardari in the National Assembly the other day during the budget presentation, he regretted that at such a critical time they even did not hear a single word of the budget, which was aimed at ensuring welfare of people and the national development. He said no direct tax was imposed on the salaried class in the budget, whereas minimum wages for the workers were fixed at Rs20,000 per month. Withholding tax had been brought down by 40 per cent, while the relief was also provided in the sales and federal excise taxes, he added. Besides, he said value added tax, and the federal excise duty on up to 850 CC vehicles had been abolished, while sales tax had been reduced to 12.5 per cent. The minister added that withholding tax on bank transactions, stock exchanges, traveling, minerals and credit cards had also been brought to an end, decreasing the tax on phones. Likewise, he said withholding tax on tourism and oil sectors had been reduced. Farrukh said the initiatives like Ehsaas Emergency cash, Ehsaas Undergraduates Scholarship, ‘Langar Khany’ (free food centres) and ‘Panahgah’ (shelter homes) were rolled out by Prime Minister Imran Khan, who had been concerned about the issues faced by downtrodden. On directions of the prime minister, he said the allocation for Ehsaas programme had been increased from Rs 210 billion to Rs 260 billion, witnessing a surge of 24 per cent in the Fiscal Year 2021-22.