Miftah slams PTI’s economic policies; terms FY 2021-22 as ‘worst year’

Islamabad: Federal Minister for Finance and Revenue, Miftah Ismail here Friday highlighted various progressive budgetary measures, aimed at overcoming huge deficits, putting economy on growth path with an objective to ensure country’s sovereignty, which was put on stake by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf  (PTI) government.

Winding up the budget debate in the National Assembly (NA), the federal minister said that most of the recommendations proposed by Senate and lawmakers were incorporated in the finance bill.

Criticizing the PTI government for damaging the economy, the minister said that the fiscal year 2021-22 would be remembered as worst year as the country deviated from all its set targets, accumulating huge deficits upto Rs5310 billion, which is around 9.85 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

He questioned, how come Imran Khan and his team talked about sovereignty when they had taken huge debts in their tenure, leading the country to near default.

However, by taking several decisions, the incumbent government had saved the country from bankruptcy. “This country is not going towards default but was going towards progress now,” he remarked.

He said, many budgetary measures were taken to tax the rich and provide relief to the poor. He said, the budget was farmer-friendly as many initiatives were taken to promote agriculture sector to make the country self-sufficient in edible oil, wheat and other crop production.