National Assembly on Tuesday resumed discussion on the Finance Supplementary (Amendment) Bill, 2018.

Syed Naveed Qamar of Pakistan Peoples Party said PTI government had promised not to overburden the common man but it has increased the price of gas which will have inflationary impact.

Responding to the points of Naveed Qamar, Information Minister Fawad Chaudhary said gas price has only been increased by ten percent for the poor segments of the society.  One hundred and forty three percent increase is for high gas consumers.

Speaking on the floor, Minister for Information, Fawad Chaudhary said that Radio Pakistan has no money to pay salaries to its employees whilst it has to pay two hundred million rupees to the pensioners.

He said seven hundred contractual staff is working in the organization and it will not be a good policy to fire them.

Shahida Akhtar Ali said the mini budget presented by the government carries no relief for the common man. He said the government should enhance the salaries of the public sector employees.  

Aslam Bhootani said that no cut should be made in the development projects of Gwadar and Balochistan.

Ayesha Ghous said the new budgetary measures will have negative impact on the overall growth rate.

Nafeesa Shah said increase in the prices of gas and power will trigger the tsunami of inflation. She said cut on development expenditures will squeeze the economy.

She regretted the government’s decision to lease out the building of Radio Pakistan Headquarters and said that Radio Pakistan is voice of the nation.  

Shahnaz Wazir Baloch regretted that no allocation has been made in the mini budget for the maternal health.

Responding to the points of members, Minister of State for Revenue Muhammad Hammad Azhar said that we want growth with development and intend to bring improvement in the social sector. He said our priority is to rescue the economy from the current crisis. He said the regulatory duties have been imposed on luxury items to suppress imports and the same modus operandi was used by the previous governments to compress them.

The Minister of State that the budgetary proposals envisage steps that will help generate more than fifty percent of revenue from enforcement measures and going after the non-filers and tax evaders.

The house also adopted a resolution extending Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Amendment) Ordinance 2018 for a further period of one hundred and twenty days with effect from 4th of next month.

The resolution was moved by Minister for Information and Broadcasting Fawad Chaudhary.

The House will now meet tomorrow at eleven in the morning.