Daily Times

Chairman-Pakistan-People’s-Party-(PPP)-Bilawal-Bhutto-Zardari-continues-playing-an-active-role-to-forge-a-national-consensus-for-dealing-withPPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on Monday said the ’employees of the International Monetary Fund have prepared the budget and handed it to Prime Minister Imran Khan’, lamenting that the budget would unleash a tsunami of inflation.

In a statement, the PPP chairman said the IMF personnel had drafted the budget and gave it to the Pakistan government. He lamented that without deliberating on it, the budget document was presented in the National Assembly. He said on every page of the annual financial plan, a ‘recipe of economic murder of people’ has been scribbled. “The secrecy of PM Khan of imposing billions of rupees indirect taxes has been caught,” he said, adding that he can foresee a new tsunami of inflation with the budget.

Bilawal said billions of rupees taxes have been levied on the daily use items which would definitely unleash a wave of inflation across the country. He said after the imposition of levy, petrol would become dearer by Rs 20 per litre and by levying indirect tax on sugar, it would become expensive by Rs 7 per kg. He also vowed to defeat the government’s endeavour to impose indirect taxes.

The PPP chairman said when the companies would impose a 17% levy on crude oil and liquefied natural gas, the prices of petrol and gas are bound to hike. “People have to bear the burden of indirect taxes in the shape of inflated prices of these commodities,” he added.

Bilawal said it is tragic that the overseas Pakistanis are sending remittances which are more than the country’s exports to help their unemployed relatives in Pakistan.

Separately, Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah has blamed the federal government for depriving the province of its due funds under last year’s budget and water resources. Speaking during a presser along with provincial ministers, Murad said that the province was promised Rs742 billion under the budgetary allocation last year, however, the amount was later revised to Rs680 billion. “We have currently received Rs598 billion during last 11 months,” he said, adding that they would wait and see as to how much amount from the now revised Rs680 billion would be handed over to them.

Murad said that he is not opposed to any province, nor demanding Punjab province to give their due share of water to them. “Instead, our demand is from the federal government which is pressurizing IRSA from carrying out a fair distribution of water resources,” he said. “Sindh had to get a share of 8.292 million acre-feet of water, however, we only received 5.385 million acre-feet of it,” he said, adding that he was not blaming Punjab for water theft rather the blame is on those responsible for water distribution.