New fiscal year budget based on 'unrealistic assumptions': Shaukat Tarin

PTI Senator Shaukat Tarin said on Saturday that the government's budget for the new fiscal year was based on "unrealistic assumptions", adding that the targets set by the ruling coalition do not reflect the seriousness and are contradictory in many ways.

"This is a very non-serious kind of budget which has unrealistic assumptions," Tarin said while addressing a press conference in Islamabad.

The former finance minister said that the government was misleading the people by saying that they face a difficult economic situation, adding that record growth had taken place during the PTI's tenure.

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"All the numbers are published and public. Please take the country's economy seriously and stop misleading the people. The numbers don't lie," he said.

He said that during PTI's tenure, Pakistan's debt did not increase by 80%, rather it moved up by 76%.

The former finance minister stressed that while loans taken by the PTI's government were substantial, the country's economy grew at the same pace.

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"When you took over the government after PPP, it was your government that increase the overall loans by 80%, have you forgotten that?" Tarin asked finance minister Miftah Ismail.

Tarin said the government had "under and over-budgeted" many facts. "There are many things [in the budget] which they've shown less and basically they've shown an income [target] which won't even be collected."

He said that the government had gone ahead with certain steps that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) will not approve.

"I think they'll have a problem with the IMF now," Tarin added.

"I think the economy wasn't their target and it wasn't their goal to fix it. Their goal was to go and change two or three things to their advantage such as amending the NAB law and election law," Tarin claimed.

Earlier, Tarin termed the Budget 2022-23 a "pack of lies." He said that the rate of economic growth will not remain at 5 percent as there was a contradiction in statistics presented by the government.

Tarin further said that the inflation rate would likely increase to 25 or 30 percent. “As the prices of petroleum products and electricity increase, so will the inflation,” he added.