Islamabad : Former President ICCI Shahid Rasheed Butt on Wednesday said the outgoing year 2020 was very hard for masses and tough for almost all the sectors of the economy.

Masses faced unprecedented inflation, the industrial sector slowed down while the agriculture sector crumbled while the situation may not improve during the incoming year if the situation remained the same, he said.

Shahid Rasheed Butt said that the agriculture sector faced locust attacks, pandemic, climate change, untimely rains, onslaught of mafia and questionable policies which hit millions of farmers and stoked the food crisis.

He said that the promise of providing millions of jobs and other necessities remained unfulfilled while millions lost their jobs and businesses.

New records of inflation, food insecurity and high energy prices were made and masses were burdened by taxes while the elite enjoyed tax exemptions worth billions of rupees.

Wheat, cotton and maize crops failed due to a host of reasons including the lethargy of the department to produce good seeds and failure to contain seed and fertilizer mafia.

The cotton crop was worst affected which is a record in many decades but no plan was made to bring improvement in the agriculture sector which is more important than the industrial sector.

Butt noted that provinces have not agreed on a single wheat support price and many issues are awaiting resolution which indicate a tough year ahead during which the import of food worth will continue.