NA approves budget as PML-N stages walkout

[Lahore_Real_Estate]

* Rejects all opposition proposals
* House approves Rs 424bn supplementary grants for outgoing fiscal year

Staff Report

ISLAMABAD: The National Assembly on Friday approved the Rs 3.259-trillion overall consolidated budget for the upcoming fiscal year, incorporating some new amendments in the initial Finance Bill, including proposals extended by the Senate but rejecting all amendments proposed by the opposition PML-N.

The Lower House’s approval of the budget came amidst a walkout from the PML-N, which accused the government of an indifferent attitude towards the masses.

The other opposition group, the PML-Q, supported the budget with one of its key parliamentarians announcing his party’s support to the PPP-led government in order to strengthen democracy.

Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani appreciated the efforts by his economic managers and members from all parliamentary groups on the approval of the budget, adding that close cooperation among political parties would stabilise democratic traditions.

“When you agree to disagree, the victory is of democracy,” Gilani told the House.

Opposition leader Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan led a token walkout of his party members to protest what he called discriminatory treatment of the amendment his party colleagues proposed to the Finance Bill.

“We are not ready to be a part of this budget. We don’t own and will not support it,” Nisar said before his party’s lawmakers followed him out of the House.

Gilani called the budget “realistic and transparent” and said the government had committed only what it could deliver on.

“We wanted to promise only what we can give to the people,” he added.

Later, the House approved Rs 424 billion supplementary grants for the outgoing fiscal year 2009-10. The government also presented to the House details of Rs 39.59 billion charged on non-voted expenditures. Earlier, the government introduced several amendments to the Finance Bill that was presented to the National Assembly on June 5 to incorporate more than 60 recommendations by a Senate panel.

The steps approved through the bill included one percent increase in GST, 50 percent rise in salaries of government employees, imposition of Capital Gains Tax on the sale of shares in the stock market, establishment of Inland Revenue Service and enhancement in incentives for parliamentarians.