Dar says no new taxes on essential commodities in budget

Addressing the post-budget press conference in Islamabad finance minister said that government has not increased prices of ghee, sugar, milk, pulses, edible oil, furnace oil and high speed diesel.

The minister claimed that the taxes have been levied on the affluent class and not the poor. He called the federal budget for fiscal year 2015-16 pro-development and poor-friendly budget which would strengthen the national economy.

Ishaq Dar said that the government has allocated 102 billion rupees for Benazir Income Support Programme to help the poor and destitute.

On a question, the finance minister said that government has not withdrawn six and half billion rupees subsidy on wheat for the people of Gilgit-Baltistan region.

He said the government has given incentives to its employees by increasing their pay and pension by 7.5 percent. He said the government has also announced to merge two ad-hoc relief allowances in the basic pay scales and to reduce income tax on their salaries from five to two percent.

The Minister said that the government has withdrawn sales tax on mobiles.

He also informed that an allocation has been made in the budget for the Census, which will be held in March-April in 2016.