Mr Gilani - Priority is to fight inflation & help the poor

30 May '08

4 min read

Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani has said that providing tangible and concrete relief with specific financial allocations to the people especially those in the lowest income groups should be the topmost priority of his government in the forthcoming budget.

The Prime Minister expressed these views while chairing a briefing on the budgetary matters at the Prime Minister's House this afternoon.

While explaining government's priorities for the forthcoming budget, the Prime Minister directed all the concerned involved in the budget making to incorporate objectives which could provide relief to the lowest income groups, boost agriculture and manufacturing growth, help in overcoming energy and water shortages, developing human resource and avoiding wastage of tax payers' money.

The Prime Minister said that providing relief to the poorest of the poor who are facing back breaking hardship due to high food inflation and shortage of power and other essential goods is the real objective of the elected government.

He said that the government is committed to making a sizeable allocation in the budget for direct income support to the poorest and vulnerable groups.

The Prime Minister said that government will soon start rural employment generating projects to generate employment for at least 100 days per family especially in the poor and backward districts.

He said that skills development programmes for both rural and urban areas will also be initiated so that employability and productivity can be increased.

He said that social protection measures including health care and nutrition support for children especially girls, will also be put in place besides allocating resources for provision of safe drinking water.

The Prime Minister said that government will also provide relief to government employees to compensate for rising inflation especially the low paid employees.

The Prime Minister directed that budget should also incorporate both fiscal and development support measures to boost growth in agriculture and manufacturing sectors which would include increasing incentives to enhance profitability, output & productivity in agriculture by suitable adjustment in subsidies and timely support prices.

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