PML-N President and Opposition Leader in National Assembly Shehbaz Sharif Thursday slammed the mini-budget and over Rs360 billion worth of new taxes imposed on the people of Pakistan, reported 24NewsHD TV.

Shehbaz said approving this mini-budget would be like signing on a death notice for Pakistan's economy and its people.

Shehbaz said that he had warned the country that the budget 2021-22 presented by this government was a fraud while the real hammer would drop on the nation through mini-budgets.

He said the most vulnerable sections of the society had been hit the hardest with this disastrous mini-budget.

He said these Rs360 billion worth of new taxes will destroy the country's economy beyond repair.

He reminded that the PTI government had promised no new taxes or mini-budgets.

Shehbaz said there was not a single measure of relief for poverty-stricken Pakistanis in this mini-budget.

“Essential commodities and food items are brutally taxed. In addition to that, mobile phones have been slapped with an advance income tax of 10-15 percent. Out of these Rs360 billion of new taxes Rs353 would be collected from sales tax while Rs7 billion would be from income tax while there are certain other items as well, so the total tax is more than Rs360 billion.”

"A whopping 17 percent of taxes have been imposed on infant formula milk, dry milk, flavoured milk, any type of red chillies, yoghurt, bread, buns, laptops, personal computers, ghee and cooking oil, oilseeds, greenhouse farming, drip agriculture, medicines, ingredients of pharmaceutical products, various machinery, gold and silver," he revealed.

He said making infant milk, yoghurt, bread, buns, chillies costly would make life even more miserable for people that were already on the verge of starvation because of PTI.

He reminded how the PML-N government ensured that these essential commodities would not become expensive.

“The PML-N government gave free laptops to encourage the advancement of learning in the IT sector to produce more professionals while the PTI had even targeted that by now imposing a tax on computers and laptops. Taxing of oil and ghee would create a new crisis,” he predicted.

He said the taxing of drip agriculture and greenhouse farming would seriously dent the farm output of the country and impact the environment adversely.

He lashed out against the increase in the cost of medicines and key pharmaceutical materials. He said this government had not only made living beyond the reach of people but had also made dying unaffordable.

The PMLN President also strongly criticized the State Bank Amendment Act.

He said the PML-N was not against State Bank's Independence, but the manner in which this government had proposed this freedom was never seen or heard of in any country in the world.

He said as a regulator it should be independent, but it was imperative that the finance ministry and the State Bank should share the burden of decision making through mutual consultation but this act puts State Bank above and beyond Pakistan's control and it would only be answerable to the IMF.