PTI Chairman and former prime minister Imran Khan on Friday rejected the budget for the new fiscal year, terming it “anti-people” and “anti-business”.
The budget is based on “unrealistic assumptions” on inflation and economic growth, he said. In the budget, the government has set the targets for inflation and economic growth at 11.5 per cent and 5pc, respectively.
Imran went on to say that weekly inflation, as measured by the Sensitive Price Index (SPI), came in at about 24pc. “[This] indicates that inflation will be between 25-30pc, which on the one hand will destroy the common man, and on the other hand, retard economic growth due to high interest rates.” All tax reforms and pro-poor programmes introduced during the PTI government had been shelved, he lamented. “It is an unimaginative, purana (old) Pakistan budget creating more burdens and misery for the nation.”
In a video statement, PTI leader Hammad Azhar said inflation will increase by 2%-3% and the gross domestic product (GDP) will be halved – dropping from 6% to 2%-3%.
Azhar, a former finance and energy minister, said there was “a lot of instability” in Pakistan’s economy and the country was on the brink of default – a notion that Finance Minister Miftah Ismail rejected a few days back.
