The Federal Budget 1995-96 – More Than Meets the Eye
To the common man, the areas of the Federal Budget that are important are those that affect his buying power. To that end, the Peoples Party’s propaganda machine is working overtime to convince the populace that the only increases proposed are the tax-hike with respect to petroleum and gas prices. Since the common man was already shelling out more for his PIA tickets and electricity (raised pre-Budget) while bracing himself for the anticipated rise in telephone and transportation prices (left to the mercy of the Corporations) it is a moot point whether the masses would have yelled with joy at the resounding theatricals of Makhdoom Shahabuddin, the Federal Minister for State, for Finance, the man elected by the PPP Government to present the Federal Budget prepared by others. Not known for any dramatic potential during his Sadiq Public School days, this better than average School-hockey player is obviously a late-starter to histrionics and was thus fighting a credibility problem even before he began his speech. For whatever it is worth he struck a sympathetic chord in his leader who gave him encouragement by approving glances throughout his performance (of reading the Budget). In the Post-Budget Press Conference, the Makhdoom acted as a traffic cop, deftly passing on almost all questions to V.A Jaffery (mainly) and Shahid Hasan Khan, Special Assistants to the PM, and thereby confirming what is universally known to all, that he knew nothing of the Budget before, during or after its Presentation (shades of Capt (Retd) A.A Jilani with respect to his Lower Urdu Paper in the Army).
In the 1994-95 Federal Budget, the PPP Regime had set out unrealistic targets. Failure to reach these as well as the deficit target of 4% of GDP was cause enough for criticism. The resultant shortfall was to the extent of Rs 40 billion in tax revenues. This brought the budget deficit of Rs 72 billion to well over Rs 100 billion. Ambitious targets combined with inflexible expenditures based on incorrect estimates invariably leads to frustration and a size of deficit for which the authorities are least prepared. Naturally this surprise upsets a lot of calculations on which economic forecasts are prepared, thus affecting the credibility of the system. Through the years, the rulers, whether political or military, get the blame while the bureaucrats who set up these wrong projections in the first place escape retribution, indeed are rewarded in many cases for their “flamboyance” in outrageous estimates and expertise in sleight of hand with financial figures.
