Except opposition, all strata hail pro-people, business-friendly budget: Farrukh
Last updated on: 12 June,2021 04:38 pm
Except opposition, all strata hail pro-people, business-friendly budget: Farrukh
ISLAMABAD (Dunya News) - Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting Farrukh Habib said on Saturday that all segments of the society, except opposition, had described the Federal Budget 2021-22 as pro-people, business-friendly and the balanced one.
In a statement, he said all the strata including labourers, salaried class, industrialists and farmers appreciated the growth-oriented budget, asking the opposition leaders to refrain from misleading the nation through distorted facts.
Referring to the ruckus of the opposition parties led by Shehbaz Sharif and Bilawal Bhutto Zardari in the National Assembly the other day during the budget presentation, he regretted that at such a critical time they even did not hear a single word of the budget, which was aimed at ensuring welfare of people and the national development.
He said no direct tax was imposed on the salaried class in the budget, whereas minimum wages for the workers were fixed at Rs20,000 per month.
Withholding tax had been brought down by 40 per cent, while the relief was also provided in the sales and federal excise taxes, he added.
Besides, he said value added tax, and the federal excise duty on up to 850 CC vehicles had been abolished, while sales tax had been reduced to 12.5 per cent.
The minister added that withholding tax on bank transactions, stock exchanges, traveling, minerals and credit cards had also been brought to the end, decreasing the tax on phone. Likewise, he said withholding tax on tourism and oil sectors had been reduced.
Farrukh said the initiatives like Ehsaas Emergency cash, Ehsaas Undergraduates Scholarship, ‘Langar Khany’ (free food centres) and ‘Panahgah’ (shelter homes) were rolled out by Prime Minister Imran Khan, who had been concerned about the issues faced by downtrodden.
On directions of the prime minister, he said the allocation for Ehsaas programme had been increased from Rs 210 billion to Rs 260 billion, witnessing a surge of 24 per cent in the Fiscal Year 2021-22.
Under the programme, the minister said annually as many as 50,000 Ehsaas undergraduate scholarships were being provided annually; besides establishing free-food centres and shelter homes for the needy.
He said the prime minister had launched the ‘Kamyab Pakistan’ programme to ensure economic uplift of upto six million households, adding each household would be aided to set up its own business through an interest-free loan amounting to Rs 500,000 under the project.
He said the farmers would be given interest-free loans amounting to Rs 200,000 and Rs 150,000 for tractors and machinery, and crops, respectively.