One of the country’s most prominent political figures, former Finance Minister Shaukat Tareen, warned Saturday that the government’s planned budget would spark a wave of unemployment.
Speaking with PTI senior leader Omer Ayub at a joint news conference, Tarin stated that Finance Minister Miftah Ismail delivered a highly muddled budget, as he sought to bamboozle the populace via word juggling.
It’s impossible for the administration to meet the ridiculous growth expectations it has set in the budget, he added. He pleaded with the minister of finance to take economic matters seriously. He claimed that PTI’s administration had increased the country’s debt, while the truth is that the economy expanded significantly as well. According to the previous finance minister, under PTI’s leadership, industries including large-scale manufacturing (LSM), housing, services, remittances, and exports all grew rapidly.
Tarin claims that the current administration has withdrawn incentives given to sectors that are on the verge of going out of business, which is worrisome.
He said that the government would raise the price of gasoline much more. He predicted that inflation would rise to 24% and that unemployment would rise to 25-30%.
There would be a fee of up to Rs. 35 on fuel, which Tarin claims will bring another wave of inflation to the country. The PTI administration, he said, offered Rs. 1 trillion in subsidies to the electricity industry.
Omar Ayub, a former Federal Minister for Energy, predicted that food costs would surge at the event. Hence, he said, the price of power was left at Rs. 16 per unit by the previous administration, and he warned that it would now rise to Rs. 40 per unit or higher. Petrol prices might soon reach Rs. 300 per liter, according to him.