After suffering opposition brickbats for a week, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar agreed in the National Assembly on Tuesday to give some both major and minor concessions in the new budget, including a Rs14 billion subsidy on phosphate fertilisers to be shared equally by the federal and provincial governments.
Announcing the changes while winding up a general debate on the national budget for 2014-15, he also assured the house that the Nawaz Sharif government would provide all resources needed to carry out the newly launched anti-terrorist military operation in North Waziristan and take care of people to be displaced by the campaign.
He said needs of the forces could be met through supplementary demands for grants and said an amount of Rs500 million had been sanctioned earlier in the day to help internally displaced persons from North Waziristan.
