The opposition suffered a setback on Thursday when their modifications to the Finance Supplementary Bill – often known as the mini-budget – were rejected by the lower chamber of parliament by a vote of 168 to 150.
During the session, the opposition members’ proposal to include a public opinion in their proposed amendment was rejected by the house members at a time when 23 members of the National Assembly, including 11 members of the treasury benches, were absent from the session.
Meanwhile, Speaker Asad Qaisar rejected the opposition’s demand for a recount of the votes cast in the election. The Finance Minister, Shaukat Tarin, stated in a speech during the session that he dismissed the opposition’s concerns about the law and that the administration intended to speed the paperwork process.
“Of the 343 billion dollars, 200 billion dollars will be repaid. “This is not a tax, but rather a record of the economy,” he explained. In response to the opposition’s complaints that the poor have been decimated, I would want to assure them that no new taxes are being levied.
He stated that there will be no taxes levied on bakery items, milk, solar panels, or laptop computers.
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Meanwhile, Ahsan Iqbal, the head of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, questioned why the finance minister claimed that the mini-budget was unavoidable and that the economy was in a bad state when, six months earlier, he said that the country’s economy was on the route to improvement.
Iqbal asserted that the country is experiencing huge inflation and unemployment as a result of the PTI government’s disastrous policy decisions. “The bureaucracy has ceased to function as a result of fabricated prosecutions brought against opposition leaders and government personnel. Because of the high cost of petrol in Pakistan, many people are now choosing to commute by bicycle.”
The PML-N leader urged that the government refund taxes paid on renewable energy sources, agriculture, and information technology.
