Govt should spend according to income to avoid catastrophe: Mian Zahid

Author: Agencies

The Chairman of National Business Group Pakistan and former provincial minister Mian Zahid Hussain has said the government should spend according to its resources to save the country from a catastrophe.

Talking to the business community, he said, the burden of the IMF’s strict conditions must be distributed to all sections of society according to their income so that masses accept this bitter pill and do not become restless. Mian Zahid Hussain said that the IMF’s strict conditions are aimed at the salaried class and poor which is against the national interest as it will push instability. He added that the government has targeted the poor in the telecom tax sparing the rich.

Poor consumers using prepaid connections will have to pay more for the service while users of postpaid connections, who make up only a few percent, are not targeted because they will opt for tax adjustments, he said, adding the aim of fiscal and monetary policy should be microeconomic stability so that the country’s economy could be built on sustainable foundations.

Every possible step has to be taken to increase the tax net and instead of increasing the burden on the existing taxpayers, he said, adding that the government has data of all industrial and commercial consumers of electricity and gas but they are not being brought into the tax net which is astonishing.

Mian Zahid Hussain furthered that according to the available data, the government’s expenditure in 2019 was 70pc more than its revenue which is a record among all major developing countries.

Pakistan was followed by Egypt, Lebanon, Sri Lanka and Ghana whose debts have exceeded 40pc of their income, while the debts of the remaining 30 countries have never reached even 30pc of their income.

In 2019, Pakistan’s debt was seven times the government’s revenue, and the government was spending about fifty percent of its total revenue on interest payments.

To bridge the gap between income and expenditure, the necessary expenses for repaying loans are being slashed, which is adversely affecting health, education, infrastructure and other important sectors, he said.