Whilst Karachiites were all set to brave the much created media hype of cyclone (tropical revolving storm), they were actually scared of "budget storm". In spite of the cyclone hype, businessmen gathered to listen to the budget speech at various trade forums.
The presentation made by Finance Minister Dr Hafeez Sheikh, at times extempore, was highly commendable and it can be described as excellent presentation of a technocrat. However, it was intriguing that a man of his calibre used undesirable political rhetoric, compromising his stature of an economist and academician, unless one is set on course for further elevation as had been the case with his predecessor in the last government. How true the minister said that the budget document may not be construed as final document, thus more significance be attached to policies thereafter.
The first spell to be felt is the increase in the tariff of KESC, and that too from retrospective effect and it is said to be Rs 1.70. Presently we are paying Rs 11 per unit inclusive of all taxes, which will be increased, along with recoveries from the consumers. The budget document caused disappointment as it has miserably failed to provide any incentive for revival of economy and job opportunities. There are serious doubts expressed by an economist on fudging of numbers in the GDP growth and inflation.
We were expecting that the learned finance minister will prevail upon the government for austerity measures aimed at cutting down expenditure of the government, instead he came out with the novel idea of freezing the expenditure, which is at its peak. The budget is a bureaucrat-designed document with the IMF dictates.
The GST, being increased to 17%, may fetch Rs 120 billion instead of Rs 80 billion through imposition of VAT, to meet the increase in pay and pensions of gigantic bureaucratic surplus machinery of the Federal government an epitome of bad/poor governance, who are given enormous pay rise without monetizing their benefits received in kind. No saner person opposes increase in salaries of the government functionaries and they should be paid market-based salaries. The only austerity measure announced is a 10% decrease in pay of the regiment of ministers, which is an eyewash with hardly any impact.
A classic example of austerity in Britain, Greece and Spain may be studied as of today. Ministers are not allowed chauffer-driven fleet of vehicles. We tried some austerity at Junejo's time, but efforts were stalled, thus try again.
It is equally sad to see that instead of increasing allocation to education, it has been trimmed from 2.5 to 2% only and that too is not spent prudently. The private sector is operating schools on commercial basis. Those who can't afford private schools, will remain illiterate. If we fail to invest about 7% of the GDP in education, there is no hope for a better future. The nation needs quality education, thus it is recommended that the armed forces, who are disciplined and imparting quality education be asked to establish schools on behalf of the government to provide quality education, creativity and innovation to our youth. The armed forces have track record of managing excellent learning centre. There is no denying that education is an essential preparation for life and work in an advanced economy.
Modern economics require skilled and motivated workers, who can earn only profit from the opportunities they afford if they are equipped to respond to their demands. The best gift of Pundit Jawaharlal Nehru to India was Indian Institute of Technological Sciences. I had an opportunity in 2007 to visit the IITS and it was fascinating to see their technology farms, where research and development work was done. India's growth has been led by services sector, contributing 62.6 percent to their GDP whilst industrial and agriculture sector contributed 20 and 17.5% respectively. It employs millions of skilled people in (BPO) business process outsourcing. India has 200 recognised universities and in addition, it spends 4 billion dollars on youth for higher studies abroad. India's GDP is led by qualified professionals only.
The Germans after World War Two, dedicated themselves to education and they are the third largest economy worth 3.0 trillion dollars due to education only and most of us know that their head of state is still known as Chancellor as Germans declared the whole country as university.
We need to declare Jihad for education and this may not be left to inefficient federal or provincial ministry of education, but the sum allocated to education be given to army education corps to establish schools of excellence where even poor rural population can enter on purely merit.
Aristotle said that education is an ornament in prosperity and a refuge in adversity. I hope Dr Hafeez Sheikh may give due credence to my humble submission for the sake of posterity. I assume that a new scam in respect of CFL is in the offing, unless transparent rules for its procurement and foolproof mechanism of distribution through private sector is not planned.
There is a dire need to check the leakage of 500 billion rupees in the FBR. The FPCCI and its President have strongly advocated an end to this haemorrhage. This money should be used for debt servicing.
I am convinced that Dr Hafeez Sheikh due to paucity of time has not been able to take feedback from the market and relied heavily on a prepared document, balancing the books. I also feel that that he has not given his input or not permitted to re-cast meaningful distribution policies that may benefit the masses below the poverty level. Nothing is lost. Now that Dr Hafeez Sheikh has time, he may look into the document and give his professional input and benefit the poor masses in future policy documents as he believes that the budget is not World Cup 2010 a family affair
DAVID HEIN Family will play a role at the 2010 World Cup as Slovakia and the United States both have fathers coaching their sons, three nations have brothers in their squads and one set of half-brothers will face off for different nations.
Vladimir Weiss was already a well known in Slovakian football history, but the legacy grew in the build-up to South Africa 2010 as Weiss coached the nation to its first-ever World Cup appearance as an independent nation. Helping the coach - at 45 the youngest team boss in South Africa - was his 20-year-old son Vladimir Weiss, who plays for Manchester City.
To add to the confusion is the fact that the coach's father is also named Vladimir Weiss and played for the Czechoslovakia national team, including at the 1964 Olympics when his son was born. Weiss II, who played for Czechoslovakia at the 1990 World Cup, never feared calls of nepotism when he added Weiss III to the Slovak side for South Africa.
"I was warned because there were reports that I was doing him a favour. But everyone could see that he deserved his World Cup nomination," the coach said. The Weisses are not the only father-son combo at South Africa. US coach Bob Bradley has in his ranks his son Michael Bradley of Borussia Moenchengladbach.
"Michael is a professional player, and he understands as well as anyone how you earn respect in a group. When we're at work, that comes first," said father Bradley. "He's my dad, and he's the coach. I'm a player, and I'm his son. There's not much more to it, really," said the younger Bradley.
But fathers coaching their sons at a World Cup is not unprecedented as Italian boss Cesare Maldini had his son Paulo as captain at the 1998 World Cup. The World Cup also has seen its fair share of brothers in the past. And South Africa 2010 is no different. Kolo and Yaya Toure are playing for Ivory Coast and Paraguay have the Barreto brothers Edgar and Diego. Honduras brothers Wilson and Johny Palacios will undoubtedly have heavy hearts despite helping the nation to its first finals since 1982.
The pair's brother Edwin was kidnapped in October 2007 and held for ransom before eventually being confirmed dead in May 2009. One of the strangest family instances in World Cup history is the half-brother duo of Germany's Jerome Boateng and Kevin Prince Boateng of Ghana.
Both have the same Ghanaian father with different German mothers. In fact Kevin Prince is the great-nephew of Helmut Rahn, who scored the winning the final word. It is my firm belief that the minister knows how to put economy back on rails. It gives adequate time, he may do the needful.
There are many other measures, as I had proposed, including water reservoir on dry riverbeds thus now that the minister has time, he may interact with the private sector, trade bodies, FPCCI, KCCI and all shades to take their input so that his future policies are pristine, innovative, creative to meet the demand of today. I believe that the minister has the skill and be allowed substantial time to remove the menace of last 2 years coupled with poor governance in all shades.
