EDITORIAL: A Business Recorder exclusive revealed that the Ministry of Commerce has supported the idea of a dedicated Minerals Division no doubt with the objective of supporting appropriate measures to exploit the country’s mineral resources for the benefit of the economy.
Last week, the Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP) recommended the formulation of a national steel policy and a ‘Ministry of Steel’ to address competition-related issues, barriers to entry for new investor as well as other challenges faced by the steel industry.
At present, mineral-related measures are dealt by the Ministry of Energy (Petroleum Division) and the steel-related matters by the Ministry of Industries and Production. If the perception is that these two parent ministries are not focusing and/or are unable to deal with the associated responsibilities then the government, as part of its cost cutting measures that it has repeatedly pledged, must take appropriate disciplinary action.
To establish two new ministries on the assumption that a dedicated ministry would be better able to represent the sub-sector is an assumption that has not proved efficacious in the past, acknowledged by all administrations, which was why the Ministry of Energy was created by merging the power and the petroleum sub-sectors.
Additionally, the merger was designed to provide the opportunity to formulate policies that are holistic in nature. Be that as it may, the fact that the two divisions — power and petroleum/mines — have a minister and minister of state (dedicated to Petroleum) is, to many critics, a measure of the government’s failure to trim the cabinet in an effort to cut expenses.
The cabinet today is one of the largest ever with 32 federal ministers, 12 ministers of state, 4 advisers to the prime minister, 9 special assistants to the prime minister, and 5 coordinators to the prime minister — that cost the exchequer (with a few not drawing salaries but drawing perks including security details), which is not justified in terms of their actual service to the people of this country.
What is, however, even more disturbing is that the wages of 7 percent of the country’s total labour force paid at the taxpayers’ expense have been consistently budgeted salary increases that are higher than the rate of inflation, in contrast with the remaining 93 percent employed by the private sector, who have been victims of negative large-scale manufacturing growth for the past two and half years, low Gross Domestic Product growth as well as industrial unit shutdowns. This, in turn, disabled their employers from raising wages and instead led to massive layoffs.
And, while there is no proactive representation of the 93 percent of the workforce yet what is ironical is that the 7 percent of those paid at the taxpayers’ expense are in the position to propose even more emoluments for themselves and their colleagues than they currently enjoy. Recently, a notification was issued after approval by the Cabinet that raised the government employees’ rental ceiling by a whopping 85 percent.
There is an emergent need to slash current expenses and actions, including a huge cabinet and upgrade of salaries/allowances of the National Assembly members as well as of bureaucrats, lead to the need for the government to increase taxes to meet its budget deficit.
This, in turn, has led to the raising of existing taxes, largely indirect taxes whose incidence on the poor is greater than on the rich — a factor that accounts for the rise in poverty levels to over 42 percent in Pakistan as per the World Bank. It is therefore critical for the government to put public money where its mouth is and to desist from taking all such measures.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2025