Budget 2024-25 has been designed to target & bully middle class & facilitate feudal lords: Hafiz Naeemur Rehman

KARACHI, June 16 (SABAH): Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) Pakistan Ameer Engr Hafiz Naeemur Rehman has said that the budget 2024-25 has been designed to target and bully the middle class, and facilitate feudal lords as it was a complete recipe to destroy the economy on behest of the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

The JI leader expressed these views while addressing a press conference held at Idara Noor-e-Haq, the JI Karachi headquarters, here on Sunday.

Speaking on the occasion, the JI Pakistan Ameer quoted Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif as claiming that inflation has been decreased from 38 percent to 12pc. Where on earth the inflation has decreased, he asked.

The budget placed unbearable weight on the lower and middle economic classes, he said. At one hand the prime minister claimed inflation has been decreasing, whereas on the other 18 percent tax was increased on flour, pulses, sugar, spices and other food items. This is a typical example of deception, he said, adding that Shahbaz Sharif delivered the same speech that he had delivered at the time of regime change.

He said that the government has already blasted the lower income class and the budget 2024-25 particularly targeted the middle class to pound them. The government announced an increase for the public sector employees but didn’t announce any mechanism for pay raise among the private sector employees, he added.

The tax regime presented in the budget reflected the feudal mindset in the government’s top brass, he said, adding that the government increased slabs to further churn out the already marooned salaried class. Rs360 billion tax was paid by the salaried class during the previous year as compared to Rs4 billion by feudal lords, he added.

Still the government has not introduced any burden sharing formula for the feudal lords owning thousands of acres of agricultural lands, he said.

The JI leader said that the tax regime in Pakistan was a total failure. A large number of professionals among 1.2 million Pakistanis left the country last year just because of the social and economic injustice in the country.

Presenting the example of Canada, he said that the government in Montreal contributes by 10 percent in the salaries if the local firms hire Information Technology engineers. Contrary to it, we cut 35 percent of income directly in the name of income tax, pushing the professionals to settle abroad.

Instead of focusing on the tax net, the government is committed to increase the tax base that too only by pressing the salaried class. He also urged the government to bring in some ease for payment getaways for freelancers.

The JI leader also lambasted the flawed governmental policy for the agriculture sector and highlighted that the sugar mills mafia has not paid the outstanding amounts to sugarcane growers for the last six months.

Talking about the wheat crises, he said, initially, the growers were encouraged to sow wheat and then wheat price was fixed but then the government decided not to purchase it, then it announced subsidiaries and later the subsidiary was replaced with loans. The governmental mafia is contributing in making a wheat crises next year as the growers will be highly reluctant to opt for wheat crop, he said.

He asked the premier; where is the report on import of wheat worth one billion dollars? He also questioned the power generation cost that is double in the country as compared to the region.
What about the gas prices, any development on gas exploration, what about Pak-Iran gas pipeline, he tossed the questions to the premier.

What about Dubai leaks? 3500 billion rupees flight from the country in just two years and the government was acting numb, he said. This system won’t work anymore, he remarked.

There is a difference between defense requisites and luxuries for defenders, he said, while reminding the authorities that 26,200,000 children in the country are still out of schools. The JI leader also shed light in detail on the issues being faced by Karachi and Karachiites and particularly the youth.

JI Pakistan Deputy Ameer Osama Razi, JI Karachi Ameer Munem Zafar and other leaders, including Saifuddin Advocate, Naveed Baig, Taufiquddin Siddiqui, Zahid Askari and others flanked the JI supreme leader at the press conference.