Action will be taken against tax defaulters, says finance minister

ISLAMABAD: Finance Minister Asad Umar said on Monday that the defaulters should start paying their due taxes as unlike the previous government, the incumbent Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s government won't just settle on mere statements.

The finance minister in his response to the opposition leader's speech claimed that the gas has been increased by only ten percent for the poor and 145 percent for the rich.

Umar said that the fertilizer prices won't be raised and a subsidy of over Rs 6bn will be given to the farmers.

The opposition leader Shehbaz Sharif criticized the government for taking off the ban on non-filers to purchase property and automobile. He said that the government subdued before the land mafia and automobile mafia.

Shehbaz said that the government increased gas prices for the middle-class segment of the society.

"No one will disagree if the government raise the price for the rich but increase in taxes on the poor is an injustice towards their poor," he said. "We didn't expect that Finance Minister Asad Umar will bring such anti-people budget."

The opposition leader said that the previous government made powerplants catering 5,000MW energy under the leadership of Nawaz Sharif.

The PML-N leader said that his party's government gave subsidy to millions of tube wells on energy and made agriculture sector self-sufficient.