ISLAMABAD: The Finance Bill 2020 would be presented on Monday in the National Assembly for passage while the House on Saturday approved 190 demands for grants of different ministries, divisions and departments of Rs 4.2 trillion.
During National Assembly session, the government rejected all cut motions of the opposition on various demands for grants of different ministries, divisions and departments.
The opposition announced it would strongly protest against hike in petroleum prices and federal budget on Monday.
Speaking on the floor of the House, Federal Minister for Food Security Syed Fakhar Imam said the federal government has decided to import wheat, with a ship carrying 65,000 tonnes of wheat reaching Pakistan soon, and the government is working to launch an agriculture package for farmers in the next few weeks.
Winding up discussion on cut motions moved by the opposition members on demands for grants of Ministry of National Food Security and Research, he said the wheat production was recorded 1 to 1.5 million less than the requirement. To bridge this gap, the country would need to import wheat this year for which applications have been sought from the stakeholders, he said adding that the import of wheat would begin within next eight weeks.
Punjab, Sindh and Balochistan met the wheat purchase targets while Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Pakistan Agricultural Storage and Services Corporation (PASSCO) failed to meet the wheat purchase target, he said.
He said the government is working to develop a mechanism to provide DAP (Diammonium Phosphate) and fertilizer at subsidized rates at the doorstep of every farmer, adding that there were 5.4 million farmers registered in Punjab and fertilizer and DAP can be provided to them by introducing a system like Ehsaas Programme. However, there is a considerable number of unregistered farmers as well for whom a system is required to be developed, the minister said. The government waived 5 percent duty on tractors to provide direct relief to famers, he said.
Imam said the seed has been the basic issue of every crop and Pakistan's per acre corps production was between 29-32 maund and it should have been 36-40 maund to move the country to high value crops country.
"The entire world is heading to high value targets as far as crops production is concerned but we have headed to low production targets in more than 70 years," he said.
The minister underscored the need for developing capacity in research institutions and stated that the country can achieve prosperity and development by investing in agriculture sector. The policies involving agriculture sector in the past were made to benefit elite class with the objective of transfer of wheat from rural to urban areas, he said.
Imam termed coronavirus and locusts' attacks as "two greatest challenges for Pakistan" saying the federal government is working on dealing with the locusts' attacks. "We are not sleeping, working very actively," Imam said, adding that 11 planes have been chartered to respond to locusts' attacks.
He said the government was also making preparations to tackle the challenge of locusts' attacks and declared emergency since January 31 and so far sprayed 2.5 million acres of land during the last three months.
Earlier, speaking on the floor of the House, Rao Muhammad Ajmal Khan from Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) said that agriculture sector remained neglected sector during the two years of the present federal government as "nothing was done to increase the productivity of crops". He added that the agriculture sector contributes 22 percent to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and provides employment to 45 percent population but this sector faces the challenges of climate change, shortage of water, seeds certification and pesticides.
The cotton production was 9.1 million bales in 1992, 10.2 billion 2017 and now production of cotton has decreased to 9.4 million bales, he said.
A 'chamber of agriculture' should be set up to protect the interest of farmers, he added.
Aisha Ghaus Pasha from PML-N said that consumption of wheat flour and milk has declined by 50 percent and 40 percent, respectively, primarily due to increase in food prices. The food insecurity would be looming large on Pakistan due to locusts' attacks and decline in production yield per acre. Forty million people in Pakistan are facing food insecurity, she said.
Khurshid Junejo from Pakistan People's Party (PPP) said, the present government has failed on multiple fronts. "Agriculture is the problem of 216.5 million people of Pakistan but the present government has treated this most important sector with criminal negligence," he added.
He said, when sugar crisis hit the country, the cost of sugar went up from Rs 50 to Rs 85 per kilogramme. Likewise, the price of tomato reached Rs 400 at one point, he added. The cotton and sugarcane industries are already on decline, Junejo said. "And there was a severe earthquake last night that jolted the poverty-ridden masses of Pakistan. The government gave an unprecedented increase in fuel prices. Such was the haste to increase fuel prices and benefit the mafia that the government did not even wait for the budget to pass and this month to end," he said, adding that increasing fuel prices would only benefit the cartel that stocked fuel at lower prices and it would make billions of rupees by selling fuel at higher prices.
PPP's Syed Hussain Tariq said cotton production reduced by 6.9 per cent and sugar production recorded a 0.4 per cent reduction this year. "The government has failed to devise any strategy to deal with locusts' attacks in the last six months. As much as 45 per cent of Pakistan's crops would be destroyed if the threat posed by locusts' attacks is not properly dealt with," he said.
PPP Ghulam Rabbani Khar also criticized the federal government for showing "non-seriousness" in dealing with locusts' attacks.
Muttahida Qaumi Movement Pakistan's (MQM-P's) Kishwar Zehra questioned why K-Electric's subsidy was reduced to half. "People in Karachi are suffering due to unprecedented power outages. We are your allies. We are answerable to our constituencies. What should we tell them?" she addressed the treasury benches.
PML-N's Nisar Cheema also took on federal government for increasing petroleum prices.
PML-N's Ahsan Iqbal said the former PML-N government conceived National Internal Security Policy (NISP) that was to be formulated by 2023 but the present government did not do anything on NISP. He said the projects that were conceived by the former government including bus service for Islamabad Police personnel, provision of sophisticated weapons to Frontier Constabulary (FC), Islamabad model jail and e-passport projects have been discarded by the present government which should be restored. Iqbal alleged that Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government is "trying to turn FIA (Federal investigation Agency) into NAB (National Accountability Bureau) for witch hunting purposes." Shazia Marri from Pakistan People's Party (PPP) strongly criticized Prime Minister Imran Khan for calling Osama Bin Laden a 'shaheed' (martyr). She said, the PPP government gave the provinces their due share in National Finance Commission (NFC) award but the present government deprived the provinces of their share in NFC. "Our government strengthened the federating units and the Parliament unlike this government that is marginalizing the provinces and has no regard for Parliament," she said.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2020
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