KARACHI: Mr Ghulam Mohammad yesterday [March 18] had an easy time in defending his “realistic Budget” in Parliament. Increased taxes on luxuries could not be called the poor man’s burden, he said. The Finance Minister’s reply… was full of sharp retorts, biting sarcasm, jibes, and ridicules. The members looked repentant as [he] reproved them for not having read the Budget. He refuted their criticisms by quoting figures from the Budget Estimates.

Even increased taxes on luxuries would not affect the consumers’ pocket. The Government were apportioning a share out of the benefits of no-devaluation, he said. Mr Ghulam Mohammad gave the assurance that the Government were determined to bring in a proportionate fall in prices of imports. Import prices, he said, had already come down by about 17 per cent, but importers and wholesalers were swallowing the benefits.

The Government were introducing an amending Bill to remove the lacunae which had rendered the Hoarding and Blackmar­keting Act ineffective. … The Government proposed to publish import and wholesale prices and would cancel profiteers’ import licences.

Published in Dawn, March 19th, 2025