Malik Amir Dogar criticizes budget, calls it “Elite-Friendly” in National Assembly

Islamabad: Opposition lawmaker Malik Muhammad Amir Dogar of Pakistan Tehreek e Insaf strongly criticized the federal budget during the National Assembly session, saying the government was giving relief to elite sections while the common citizen continued to suffer under inflation, utility bills, expensive electricity, petrol prices and high rents.

Speaking during the budget debate, Dogar said it was unfair that relief was being proposed for business and premium class air passengers while ordinary people were struggling to pay basic bills. He said the budget appeared to favour the “ashrafia” and elite instead of the middle class and poor.

Dogar presented three amendments during his speech. His first amendment related to Pakistan International Airlines and proposed tax concessions for the aviation sector. He said PIA had placed a burden of around Rs600 billion on the national exchequer in previous years.

He said that now that PIA had been privatized, it was difficult to understand why sales tax relief should be given to only one airline. He argued that if the government wanted to support the aviation sector, all private airlines should be given the same one-time relief.

Dogar said PIA had now become a private airline and should not be treated differently from other airlines. He said equal tax relief for all airlines would help the whole aviation industry grow instead of giving advantage to only one airline.

The PTI lawmaker said his amendment was aimed at creating fairness in the aviation sector. He said if the government’s purpose was to improve air travel and strengthen airlines, then every airline should benefit from the policy.

His second amendment focused on tax relief for air passengers. Dogar strongly objected to giving tax relief to business class and premium class passengers. He said this was a serious injustice at a time when the common man was facing historic pressure from inflation.

He said ordinary citizens are crushed by inflation, and people are shocked by the amount of taxes included in utility bills when they arrive. He said electricity bills, fuel prices, rents and other expenses have made life extremely difficult for the public.

Dogar said people have become mentally stressed because of high utility bills and rising living costs. He said the government should explain why relief was being given to those who travel in business and premium class instead of ordinary people.

He said if the government wanted to reduce taxes on air tickets, relief should be given to economy class passengers. He said economy class is used by ordinary and middle-class citizens, including those who travel for Umrah and Hajj after saving money for years.

The opposition member said a middle-class person often spends his entire life saving money to perform religious travel. He said such people deserved relief more than those who could afford business class travel.

Dogar said giving relief to business and premium class passengers showed that the budget was not focused on the common people. He said the budget looked like a budget for the elite class rather than a budget for ordinary Pakistanis.

His third amendment related to employees of the National Assembly and Senate Secretariats. Dogar said these employees work under a special constitutional and parliamentary structure and perform important duties during parliamentary business.

He said employees of both secretariats receive a special parliament allowance because of their unique duties, responsibilities and working conditions. However, he said the government was treating this allowance as normal income and charging income tax on it like ordinary salary.

Dogar requested the Finance Minister to exempt this parliament allowance from income tax. He said the allowance is linked to extra working hours and overtime, especially during parliamentary sessions, and should not be treated like regular income.

He said many employees of the National Assembly and Senate work even on holidays and during extended sessions. He said it was unfair to tax their sessional allowance in the same way as normal income.

Dogar argued that the financial impact of this exemption would not be very large for the national treasury. He said the amount involved was not in billions but only in lakhs or even smaller figures in some cases.

He also gave the example of judges of the superior courts and employees of some federal departments, saying that judicial allowance and certain special allowances in other departments already receive tax relief. He said employees of the National Assembly and Senate Secretariats should also be given similar relief.

Dogar said the parliament allowance was given because of the special constitutional status, organizational structure and responsibilities of the two secretariats. He urged the government to recognize this difference and remove income tax from the allowance.

The PTI lawmaker said his amendments were not aimed at blocking relief but at making relief fair and balanced. He said if the government wanted to provide exemptions, those exemptions should benefit the common people, economy class passengers, all airlines equally and parliamentary staff working extra hours.

He said the budget should not create the impression that relief is available only for powerful and privileged groups. He urged the government to review the proposals and make the budget more people friendly.