Independent MNA Mohisn Dawar, while participating in the debate termed the budget session a unique exercise for appropriate policy formulation and incorporating positive suggestions of the lawmakers in the fiscal plan to bring the least developed areas at par with developed areas of the country.
He said the Minister for Finance in his budget speech had announced progressive taxation to shift the burden from the under privileged segments to the privileged class.
He urged for an out of the box approach to tackle the economic challenges to get rid from the international lending institutions and their tough conditions.
He asked for bridging the widening gap between the exports and imports, and said that bilateral trade with Afghanistan had immense potential but the trade volume between the countries were bellow the existing scope.
He lauded the government for allocating sufficient funds in the Public Sector Development Program (PSDP) for up-gradation of Chashma canal, adding that it would bring over 800,000 hectares of land under cultivation, besides promoting agriculture in its catchment areas.
The lawmaker also stressed the need for constituting a new National Finance Commission Award as the last award was finalized in 2009.
He said that finalization of award would help provide required funding for the developmental projects.
Dr. Muhammad Afzal Khan Dhandla of PTI said that rising inflation had badly impacted the life of common citizen, adding that recent surge in the petroleum prices would further increase their problems.
He asked for taking appropriate steps to save them from the inflationary pressure and ensure provision of essential commodities on affordable rates.
He stressed the need for taking measures for water conservation, building new water storages to meet needs of the farming community across the country.
He said Pakistan was among top four water stressed countries and its ground water level was also reducing rapidly, which would be extremely insufficient for the growing population.
The lawmaker said the agriculture sector development was prerequisite for economic growth and development of the country, advocating increasing funds’ allocation for this sector to tackle the growing demand of food.
Nawabzada Iftikhar Ahmad of PPPP said that the challenges, being faced by the country, were the result of incompetence and inefficiencies of PTI government.
He said that the collation government in difficult time decided to safeguard the national interest and protect the state and took tough decision.
In order to protect the less income people, allocation for Benazir Income Supports program was enhanced from Rs364 billion and allocated Rs.114 billion additional.
However, he said, due to rising inflation, increasing poverty, this grant was not matching the demand and asked for allocating more resources for the program to bring more households under the safety next.
He also proposed for enhancing allocation for education sector, which stood on Rs15 billion, besides allocating resources for the construction of schools and colleges in under developed areas to promote education.
Rao Muhammad Ajmal Khan of PML-N also asked for allocating more resources for agriculture sector and providing incentives on oil seeds cultivation.
He suggested providing concessional loans to growers for installation of solar irrigation system to conserve electricity, besides enhancing subsidies on agri-inputs including DAP and others.
He proposed the government for specifying land in all special economic zones, which is being developed under China-Pakistan Economic Corridor Projects for agriculture value addition.
Rao Ajmal proposed the government to establish technical universities in the country to provide skilled workforce for agriculture and industrial sector.
Syed Hussain Tariq current budget under the prevailing circumstances was a balance and reasonable budget, adding the world was observing recessionary trend.
He said the other external factor that influenced the local economy was the Russia-Ukraine conflict; whereas incorrect data and figures were provided about the national economy.
He recommended signing a charter of economy by taking all the political stakeholders on board and formulating the long term economic strategy for finance, agriculture, industrial growth to correct the economic direction.
He asked for taking measures for stabilization of rupee against dollar and privatizing the loss making public sector enterprises, adding that Rs250 billion was set for privatization of such entities.
The lawmaker said that government had decided to reduced 30% tax reduction on medicine, adding that it should ensure that the its benefit must reach to end users.
Ehsan-ul- Haq Bajwa of Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz said that mega corruption scandals had been surfed of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf government. He said that most of the ministers and advisors in the PTI government were imported.
He also highlighted the achievements of the PML-N government under the leadership of Muhammad Nawaz Sharif and said that record projects had been started to generate electricity.
Mir Amer Ali Khan Magsi of Pakistan People Party Parliamentarians (PPPP) said collective efforts were needed to tackle the confronted economic challenges on sustainable basis.
He highlighted the importance of building more water reservoirs to meet needs of agriculture and power sectors, adding it was unfortunate that a large amount of rain water went to the sea unutilized. “A comprehensive strategy is needed to give a boost to the agriculture sector.”
Shahida Rehmani of PPPP said there were insufficient allocations in the proposed budget for women development related projects, and asked for increasing employment of women.