Adviser on Finance Hafeez Sheikh has said despite the difficult economic situation, the government has enhanced allocations for protection of vulnerable segments of the society and development projects in the next year’s fiscal budget.
Addressing a post-budget news conference in Islamabad along with Planning Minister Makhdoom Khusro Bakhtiar and Minister of State for Finance Hammad Azhar, Hafeez Sheikh said that Govt has doubled allocations for the social safety net in the budget
The Adviser on Finance said two hundred and sixteen billion rupees have been earmarked in the budget as a subsidy for those electricity consumers using less than three hundred units per month
He said that rich people in other countries pay higher taxes” as compared to the upper class in Pakistan
Hafeez Sheikh said the new budget also aims to reach out to the poor districts including those in Balochistan as well as erstwhile FATA.
“We are also giving subsidies to the private sector on the gas and electricity tariff besides they will be given loans as part of efforts to promote economic activity in the country,” he added.
