TO pursue sound and equitable economic policies that put Pakistan on the path of sustained economic development and macroeconomic stability with a view to continuously and significantly improve the quality of life of all citizens through prudent and transparent public financial management carried out by dedicated professional(s).” Thus runs the mission statement of the ministry of finance on its official website. This is not only verbose but far from reality, the Dawn said in its editorial. Excerpts: The economic policies being pursued are neither sound nor equitable. This is evident from the deep economic mess the country is in. Growth remains elusive. The macro economy is crumbling because of imprudent, opaque and unprofessional management of the country's finances. The people are losing the battle against runaway price inflation because the government is not prepared to curtail its lavish spending and plug the leakages. This is the background to the latest “effort” at fixing the national economy. The government is revising its budgetary targets for the current financial year. It will be the second “formal” revision in less than seven months. The budgetary plan was first revised following the summer floods, which were blamed for straining the government's resources and spurring inflation. It was like saying that our finance managers and planners would have pulled the economy out of the deep quagmire if the floods had not hit the country. Public development spending is proposed to be cut by 50 percent. Who will suffer? Obviously the ordinary people whose access to jobs and public services will be further restricted. The revenue target has been revised down by five percent. Who will benefit? The wealthy who have successfully resisted every government effort to tax them. Another “major” measure proposes a two-day weekly holiday in the public sector to save the government's non-salary expenditure. This apparently is aimed at protecting the government against the need to cut its size and reduce spending on maintaining a large army of ministers and bureaucrats. Also, the military budget will not be touched. The new plan may woo back global lenders and fetch the government a few billion dollars in loans/aid for the time being. But it will not solve the country's economic problems. Nor will it mitigate the pain being felt by people burdened with high prices, let alone improve the quality of their life as promised in the ministry's mission statement. __
