LAHORE: Former governor Chaudhry Sarwar has stressed the government prepare fiscal budget 2015-16 while properly considering requirements to win the war against terrorism.

Sarwar, who is Pakistan Tehreeki-Insaf (PTI) core committee member, presenting party`s 25 prebudget points in a statement said on Tuesday the government should provide free education and health facilities to the masses besides announcing a scheme to reduce unemployment. Underlining the role of women in the progress of a country, he proposed allocation of a certain portion of budget for the prosperity and development of women.

Taking into consideration the prolonged electricity loadshed-ding, he said the government should build small dams across the country besides eliminating electricity theft and circular debt.

Highlighting the importance of subsidies, he demanded the government announce at least 50pc subsidy in electricity and gas and a similar subsidy to farmers for purchasing agricultural tools and diesel. He suggested the government allocate approximately Rs100 billion for the provision of interestfree loans and subsides to farmers.

The former governor demanded increase in salaries of government employees besides taking measures to ensure a minimum salary of Rs15,000 for labourers. He said the government should not impose any new tax in the coming fiscal year.

He aske d the government to impose a complete ban on the import of bulletproof and other luxurious vehicles. Criticising the expendi-tures incurred on the use of petroleum, maintenance of vehicles and internal and external official tours by president, prime minister and other ministers, he demanded the government reduce them up to 70pc.

The PTI leader said the Pak-Iran gas project should be completed without delay. He said the government should target 8pc agricultural growth for the next fiscal year and reduce 5pc sales tax on pesticides, seeds, agricultural machinery, diesel engines.

He further said the government should stop its dependence on the International Monetary Fund and other international monetary organisations as well as announce a policyofnottakinganyfurtherforeign loans. He called for decreasing non-development expenditures up to 60pc while increasing expenditures up to 45pc in developmentfunds. He asked for generation of five million jobs to decrease unemployment.

Sarwar also said the government should provide targeted subsidy to people through issuance of `subsidy cards`. He suggested the government introduce pre-paid electricity meters to eliminate power theft besides doing away with free electricity provision to employees of the Water and Power Development Authority or at least allocating only 50pc provision of free electricity.

He said the government should take measures to stop corruption in the Federal Board of Revenue that allegedly amounted to Rs375 billion. He demanded the government upload expenditures of federal and provincial governments on their respective websites after every three months so taxpayers knew where their money was being spent.