LAHORE:Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Lahore chapter President and Senior leader Chaudhry M Aslam Gill has lauded the government for presenting a balanced and pro-poor budget despite financial crisis in country.
Commenting on the budget 2023-24, presented by Finance Minister Ishaq Dar in the National Assembly on Friday, he said that up to 35 per cent raise in the salaries of the government employees in the current situation was a good decision, which would provide relief to a big part of the population. Moreover, a 17.5 per cent increase in the pensions would provide a moment of relaxation to the senior citizens of the country, he said. The PPP leader, appreciating the minister, said the government rightly decided to impose taxes on import of unnecessary items and promote local businesses. He said the labour class had also been provided with relief as the minimum wages had been increased to Rs 32,000, adding the government had not ignored even widows and now the government would pay up to Rs 1 million loans of the House Building Finance Corporation to any widow.
He said that some business sectors had been given relief to support local industry, adding that the government was also providing support to the export of local products with value addition. He also appreciated the budget for introducing pro-agriculture policies.
Ch Aslam Gill hoped the government would successfully steer the country out of crises in few months as presenting the budget without the help of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) was itself a success.