Former Minister Demands Govt to Cut Interest Rate to 12% and Give Relief to Salaried Class

Former caretaker Federal Minister for Commerce and Industries Gohar Ejaz demanded that the government bring down the interest rate to 12 percent and spend this savings of Rs. 4 trillion from this interest cost by giving relief to salaried class, health, and education. Ejaz took to X and wrote that in the budget for 2024-25, Rs. 13 trillion is being targeted to be collected as taxes against tax collection of Rs. 9.3 trillion in 2023-24. Out of the projected tax for next year,  Rs. 7.5 trillion will go to provinces as per the 18th Amendment. The Federal Government will have Rs. 10.6 trillion including other non-distributable taxes Petroleum Levy on Petroleum products and other Income. Ejaz said, sadly the country will be paying more than Rs. 9 .8 trillion in interest to banks at 20 percent. “I ask the government, why are we keeping the interest rate at 20 percent when Year on-year inflation is 12 percent in June because of higher benchmark inflation of last year June”, he added. He said that everybody is ready to pay taxes for the best future of the country. “We must bring the interest rate to 12 percent and spend these savings of Rs. 4 trillion from this interest cost by giving relief to salaried families charging maximum tax of 15 percent on salaries class, spend on health , education technical training build new canals for agriculture infrastructure spend on research to increase the productivity of crops and make exports of the country regionally viable to build our economy towards sustainable growth,” he added. He further said tax relief to the salaried class will make the domestic economy grow, and give more buying power to them to spend in the economy which will bring more indirect tax revenue for the government and let them live their lives respectably. He said the only way to pay these more than $100 billion foreign debts is not by taking more debts from friendly countries and other banks but by making industry and exports viable. Ejaz said, “Let’s focus on making our economy grow by creating jobs to stop the brain drain and make people earn respectable living, we can pay foreign debts only by creating exports from agriculture, services, and industry”. He urged to come out of this mindset of taking more loans to pay existing loans as the country is in a debt trap and this is not the solution. “We are the people of this country who only believe in this country and only want our nation and country to survive these difficult times and grow. This budget is not in any way the way forward for Pakistan, Ejaz concluded.