Islamabad:
President of Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, described the reasons for his party on Thursday to support the second budget of the Coalition Manager led by PML-N, saying that key changes had been made to the PPP contribution.
Addressing the National Assembly before the adoption of the budget, Bilawal explained why the parliamentarians of the PPP – a great partner of the coalition – had decided to support the bill, despite previous objections.
PPP’s support comes only a few days after strongly criticizing the federal budget, accusing the government of discriminating to the Sindh and threatening to boycott the approval process. A similar impasse occurred last year between the PPP and the PML-N, which the PTI had described as a “fixed fight” intended to divert the public exam.
However, things remained largely calm between the PPP and the PML-N during this year’s budget session.
In his speech, Bilawal noted that the government had increased funding for the Benazir income support program (BISP), a social protection regime introduced by its mother and former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, by 20%.
The PPP chief criticized the previous PTI government for trying to undermine the bisp in all budgets and congratulated the outgoing Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif for having constantly increased his funding since he assumed his duties.
The president of the PPP also noted that the government had increased the income threshold for tax exemption from 600,000 rupees to 1.2 million rupees per year. In addition, he pointed out that the solar panel tax had increased from 18% to 10% as a result of objections raised by PPP members.
Bilawal also praised the decision to reduce the arrest powers of the Federal Board of Return (FBR). Under the new policy, arrests in tax cases can now only be carried out in the event of proven fraud and not at the survey stage. In addition, such offenses have been declared on bail. “These are the reasons why the PPP supports this budget,” he said.
Earlier, the president of the PPP chaired a meeting of the PPP parliamentary party, which attended all the legislators of the PPP. During the session, PPP members informed Bilawal of their proposals concerning the federal budget. He was also informed of the changes integrated into the budget following the PPP contribution.
Bilawal received a detailed briefing on acceptance of the party’s request for a 20% increase in the BISP program budget, said a party press release, adding that it was also informed that the solar panel tax has been reduced by almost 50% in response to the coherent advocacy of the PPP.
Bilawal was also informed of how the government has withdrawn the controversial amendments linked to the powers of FBR to arrest due to the solid PPP reserves. On PPP’s suggestion, PPP legislators have been informed that the federal budget now includes a 10% increase in government wages and a 7% increase in pensions.
In addition, PPP legislators have been informed that the party obtained a complete exemption from income tax for employees earning up to 100,000 rupees per month. Another key achievement underlined during the briefing was the restoration of budgetary allowances to the universities of the Sindh after the request for PPP.
