THE banker-turned-finance minister appeared nonplussed as he responded to the questions on Budget 2024-2025 that has burdened the already weighed-down salaried classes while protecting the privileged. He could only offer words of ‘sympathy and empathy’ to the affected people. His defence of exemptions extended to the top civil and military bureaucracy and retail businesses was equally superficial.

But why should one blame the rookie finance minister for the budgetary jugglery we have witnessed? He is just the messenger of bad news. The budget reflects the demands of vested interests that are not prepared to change the status quo. The untouchables are not to be touched. Fleecing the oppressed remains the name of the game.

Indeed, the increase in tax revenue, wherever it comes from, will help secure a new IMF financial package and keep a broken economy afloat for a while. But the budget, which was approved by parliament last week amid some protesting voices, doesn’t even hint that the incumbents are interested in carrying out the promised structural reform needed to steer the economy out of its perpetual state of crisis.

It is largely a patch-up job that is not likely to be sustained. A long-term vision for economic revival is missing. The prime minister has admitted that the budget was prepared in ‘collaboration’ with the IMF. So, where is that much-touted home-grown economic reform programme? It seems to be non-existent.

While a section of the population has been laden with more taxes, no real effort has been made to widen the base. There has not been any effort to........

© Dawn