Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin addressing the post-budget press conference in Islamabad today, stated that the government had presented an aggregate growth budget, and their challenge is to alleviate the GDP.

The finance minister said that the poor and deprived in Pakistan had not conventional loans and training for the last 70 years.

He said loans would be given from commercial banks to small welfare banks and, in the first stage, four million people will be beleaguered.

The finance minister further declared plans to deliver employment and give Rs150, 000 to small farmers while also providing lists of small farmers and the poor to the respective banks.

Loans up to Rs2 million will be given for the construction of a house and loans to poor farmers will go up to Rs500, 000, he said.

Pakistan has become a food scarce country and we are now trading in what we used to export, he said, adding that the country is importing pulses, wheat, and sugar.

“We did not pay attention to our crops, but now we will pay attention to it,” he guaranteed.

“We should not play politics with the poor,” he said, adding that banks have the possessions and the government does not have economic space.

“Commercial banks are not near the homes of the poor, they are in big cities.”