LAHORE: Punjab Finance Minister Dr Ayesha Ghous Pasha concluded the budget debate in the provincial assembly on Friday, saying that and the budget for the fiscal year 2015-16 is public friendly and it has a number of new horizons for development of the province.
During the budget debate, which lasted for five days, a number of government and opposition members participated in exercise and expressed their concerns.
The opposition and treasury opposed and supported the budget, respectively. The treasury was particular vocal and strongly criticised the PTI for hampering Punjab development efforts through politics of sit-in last year.
Opposition leader in the Punjab Assembly Mian Mehmoodur Rashid adopted quite a critical tone about the budget, which he said was devoid of democratic character for being prepared with the input of bureaucrats than the elected representatives who better know problems of the masses.
He said the government set the revenue collection target at Rs 144 billion but it actually collected Rs 114 billion.
Tax recovery from luxury houses was estimated at Rs 500 million but actually it remained Rs 14 million. On farmhouse, recovery was fixed at Rs 15 million while only an amount of Rs 186,000 was recovered. Recovery of tax from luxury cars was fixed at Rs 23 million but only Rs 8.5 million could be recovered.
