The party of ‘economic revival’ is now squirming in the hot seat, breaking a sweat as it anxiously tip-toes around potential landmines. The loaded pre-election speeches promising quick fixes that won the populist vote have been written off as a theatrically gripping display of pathos and the people have once again been handed out the placebo pill. The rich man’s budget is out- the KSE has been rejoicing ever since it was announced spiraling upwards by 433 points in a single day, during the first post-budget trading session leaving the ill-fated common man in the street to drown in his sorrows.
That the budget has been met with sharp criticism is not entirely unfair to a party that has taken the responsibility of running state affairs for the third time- one that was part of the system by being in the government in the largest province and one that claimed to have an economic roadmap ready for revival. The party used its experience as its unique selling proposition to ask the people for votes and its mandate is thus, strongly rooted in its success in dealing with the economic mess. Election speeches pledging an end to load shedding, breaking the begging bowl, employment for all, a minimum wage of 15000 rupees, war against corruption and accountability across board not only upped the ante, but the promises made have now boomeranged to haunt the rulers.
The reaction to the budget was critical and swift-government servants went on strike and the Supreme Court struck down implementation of GST. Media and talk shows were equally disparaging with the ruling party finding it difficult to offer much in its defense. Time-tested clichés like ‘the coffers of the state are depleted’ and ‘we are inheriting multifarious problems at every level from mismanagement of previous governments’ failed to gain resonance with an enlightened population. The economic health of the country was never a guarded secret nor was the condition of the different government departments or state-owned enterprises. Despite its understanding that the economic conditions of the country might need a cosmic miracle to improve, the ruling party nonchalantly guaranteed a better tomorrow having asserted that it had done its homework.
Thanks to a vibrant and empowered media and an emerging middle class, especially the youth that thus far had never found politics chic, the man in the street is much savvier now. The rulers on the other hand are still rooted in the past and have never moved on. PPP in Punjab and ANP in KPK were wiped out due to poor governance and PTI has emerged as a strong runner up in hitherto considered safe constituencies of Karachi and also in Punjab. People thought that they had awarded mandate to PML (N) not to elaborate the problems afflicting Pakistan, as they were living it every day, but to provide solutions.
Given the dismal macroeconomic indicators, nobody seriously expected too much relief. What really disappointed the masses was again seeing a conventional budget with misplaced priorities. Indirect taxation was enhanced passing on the bulk of the burden as always to the luckless common man. Direct taxes on big business, agriculture, stock exchange and real estate never materialized. Surprisingly, the data of more than three million potential tax payers available with NADRA was never tapped into nor was a sincere effort launched to recover hundreds of billions of looted money in or outside the country. As usual, squeezing the honest tax payer for more instead of widening the tax base became a matter of policy.
What unfolded before the nation was a collection of tried and tested economic measures from the 1990’s where instead of looking to correct structural weaknesses in the economic system, an undue amount of importance was attached to making the masses give up more. This is an unfair demand to make considering that the ruling elite has not set the precedent for self-sacrifice. In fact, with the government eating up its words within days of being sworn in, its credibility and degree of commitment to national interests is coming under question. A nation with a huge begging bowl in hand, suffering 18 to 20 hours electricity outages, where debt servicing eats up 926 billion of the budget, where a large number of children suffer stunted growth due to malnutrition, where polio and measles are still endemic talks about bullet trains, metros, motorways and highways seems a little out of sync to say the least.
It is a well recognized fact that the task of selling the budget to the people is not an easy one even in the most developed of countries as some sections of the society are bound to be at a disadvantage. Therefore, while chalking out the budgetary proposals, the emphasis should be on figuring out which section of the society deserves to be relieved of its burden. Once the priority is set, the job becomes much easier.
The fact of the matter remains that the government saw the ‘great responsibility’ coming with the ‘great power’ given to it by voters. There is no turning back now: to prevent the election high from transitioning into a hangover, the ruling party must bridge the trust deficit through policies that are beneficial and well-suited to the current context. It must go the whole nine yards as the country is ripe for change. Luckily, it has four more budgets to woo the masses with.
No comments:
Post a Comment