ISLAMABAD — A parliamentary committee on Monday strongly criticized the federal government. The committee accused the government of breaking the law by failing to share its official budget plan on time. The National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Finance, led by Syed Naveed Qamar, said the government is not doing enough to fix the country’s economic problems.
Key Highlights
- The government missed the legal May 10 deadline to show its new budget strategy paper.
- Lawmakers criticized the tax department for raising tax rates instead of getting new people to pay taxes.
- Experts warned that Pakistan’s economic recovery is still very weak.
- New estimates show that inflation will likely stay high and go over 12 percent.
- Total debt in the energy sector rose quickly to 5.1 trillion rupees in just eight months.
Missing Deadlines and Hiding Tax Shortfalls
United Nations development experts told the committee that the Finance Ministry broke the law by not sharing the budget paper by May 10. This delay stops parliament from checking the budget details properly.
Committee Chairman Naveed Qamar said the tax department is failing because it keeps putting more burden on the same taxpayers. He revealed that the government missed its tax collection target by over 680 billion rupees in the last 10 months. He added that the government used bank profits and fuel levies to hide this huge tax shortfall.
High Prices and Rising Energy Debt
The meeting showed that regular people are facing tough times. Prices for daily items like food, fuel, and electricity rose between 43 percent and 68 percent this year. This rise in prices is hurting the buying power of normal families.
At the same time, the government’s total unpaid energy debt jumped from 3.5 trillion rupees to 5.1 trillion rupees. This happened because the government moved a lot of unpaid electricity bills over to the gas sector, causing gas debt to double.
Danger from Global Problems
Experts also warned that Pakistan buys 90 percent of its oil and gas from the Middle East. Because of this, any long fight or war in that region will immediately hurt Pakistan’s economy, raise local prices, and damage the value of the rupee.
Committee members noted that the government is cutting spending on development projects like schools and roads just to pay off its loans. The panel demanded that the new budget focus on stopping illegal trade, cutting high taxes on mobile internet, and helping the economy grow safely.
