Charter of the Economy units with five or more rooms. Also, rents, especially in metropolitan cities, have risen 25 percentage points more than the cumulative rise in the overall consumer price index since 2007-08. Simultaneously, the electricity tariff for monthly domestic consumption of 300 to 700 kwh per month has gone up to almost four times. It is not surprising that the average savings rate for the middle class is down to only 3 percent from 6 percent eight years ago. However, middle income workers, with annual income from Rs 400,000 to Rs 1,000,000 per annum remain the backbone of our personal income tax system. The majority are salaried taxpayers. They account for over 90 percent of tax return filers and contribute over 46 percent to the tax revenue. There has also been a rapid growth in the demand for consumer durables like motorcycles, refrigerators, TV sets, etc., of 4 to 6 percent per annum in the last seven years. This has been facilitated by the arrival of relatively cheap Chinese makes in the market and somewhat improved consumer financing. Mobile phones have, of course, filtered down even to the lower class. The Federal and Provincial Budgets of 2021-22 include the announcement of over 25 percent increase in the minimum wage throughout the country. Government employees have also received a significant increase in their allowances. 30.5. Relief to the Middle Class There is a dire need to provide relief also to the middle class, including the following: i) The exemption limit in the personal income tax should be raised once again to Rs 1,200,000 from Rs 600,000 currently. This was included in the Federal Budget of 2018-19 but withdrawn subsequently by the new Government. ii) The NPHDA is developing housing schemes on plots of up to 8 Marlas. An incentive should be provided to middle class families to buy these housing units by offering tax deductibility of up to Rs 20,000 per month from the loan repayments. iii) The Budget speech included a special loan scheme of interest free loans for the low-income group. This facility should also be made available to low middle- income families with incomes less than Rs 48,000 per month. iv) The other chapters have already emphasized the need for development of the digital economy. This will provide more employment to young graduates and post-gradu­ates who are potential entrants into the middle class. The focus should be on exports of IT services. 322