Federal Finance Minister Shaukat Aziz on Thursday said the next budget will have relief package for the agriculture sector to provide maximum benefits to the farmers and common man.
He was talking to newsmen, along with President PML Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, after giving a briefing to the leaders of the Pakistan Muslim League here at PML House, regarding next budget.
Chaudhry Shujaat said for the first time, Finance Minister visited the PML House to seek the proposals and suggestions of the party leaders before finalising the budget.
He said during this over three hours meeting, the leaders of the PML presented useful suggestions and proposals and hoped that these would be incorporated in the preparation of the budget being announced on May 12.
The Finance Minister Shaukat Aziz said the leaders of the PML have presented valuable and important suggestions.
Replying to a question about any specific increase in the salaries of the government employees in accordance with the suggestions of the PML leaders, the Finance Minister said these proposals would be considered sympathetically in the formation of the next budget but he could not disclose the exact increase in the salaries.
The Finance Minister however said that there would be very effective and encouraging package for the farmers in the next year budget in accordance with the suggestions and proposals presented by the PML leaders in the meeting on Thursday.
The meeting of the PML presided over by its President Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain was also attended by leaders of the PML and federal ministers including Secretary General PML Mushahid Hussain Sayed, Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmad, Foreign Minister Khurshid Kasuri, Minister for Information Technology Awais Leghari, Mian Manzoor Ahmed Wattoo, Hamid Nasir Chatta, Chief Minister Baluchistan Jam Muhammad Yousaf, Danyal Aziz, Gohar Auyb, Asad Junejo, Naseer Mangal, Syed Hashmi, Ishaq Khan Khakwani, Hameeda Khoro, Muhammad Ali Durani, Delawar Abbas and Finance Minister of Balochistan Syed Ehsan Shah.
Later briefing the newsmen, the Information Secretary of the PML, Senator Tariq Azim said for the first time any ruling party has organised this type of briefing session at the party headquarters to incorporate the suggestions of the party leaders.
He said PML has presented guidelines to the Finance Minister and hoped that the proposals would be included in the next budget.
He hoped that the next budget would be a "common man and poor friendly" budget besides having incentives for the farmers.
Tariq Azim said the PML leaders suggested to the Finance Minster that common man should be given loans on minimum possible interest rate from House Building Finance Corporation and other financial institutions.
He said it has also been suggested that loans up to Rs 25,000 should be granted on personal guarantee through simple procedure to unemployed persons.
It was also suggested that like the provision of cars on lease by the banks, the farmers should be given tractors on similar type of lease. The PML leaders also suggested that besides Zari Taraqiati Bank Limited (ZTBL) the commercial banks should also be asked to provide agriculture loans.
Referring to burden of electricity charges on the common man, the PML leaders also asked the Finance Minister to make efforts to reduce electricity charges.
Deputy Chairman Planning Commission Dr Muhammad Akram Sheikh while briefing the PML party leaders said that 82 percent people quit the education after primary, therefore the country has shortage of trained and educated manpower.
He informed the meeting that Japanese experts have offered vocational training to Pakistani youth in Pakistan and said 30 Japanese experts have reached here in this connection while about 300 will arrive by next year.
Chairman Central Board of Revenue Abdullah Yousuf briefing the PML leaders said due to strikes, country has to face revenue losses of Rs 3.0 billion daily.
He said a system of effective monitoring of all the projects after three months has been evolved to ensure quality and timely completion of the projects.
He said economic growth rate has increased form 5.5 percent last year to 6.0 percent.
The CBR Chairman said about 900,000 TV sets are being manufactured in the country annually, while the annual production of motorcycles is 400,000 and the annual production of cars is more than 100,000.