Pakistan has received half of the funds earmarked under US aid bill, NA told

Japan to provided grant assistance of over $18.5 million from 2012-13 onwards to Pakistan.

ISLAMABAD: United States has disbursed over 3.8 billion dollars to Pakistan over last four years under Kerry Lugar bill, Radio Pakistan reported.

Parliamentary Secretary for Finance Rana Muhammad Afzal Khan informed the national assembly on Monday that Pakistan has received over $3.8 billion against the total obligation of $7.5 billion under the Kerry-Lugar-Berman bill from US.

Speaking at the parliament during the question hour session, the finance secretary also provided a break up of the assistance received. $252 million were received for energy sector programmes, over $185 million for economic growth and agriculture, while over $323 million were received for education and $272 million for the health sector.

Pakistan also received $195 million for democratic governance‚ $1.157 billion for emergency and flood relief‚ $549 million cash transferred‚ $754 million under stabilisation programme and $137 million for humanitarian assistance.

Khan also informed the house that The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) has provided grant assistance of over $18.5 million from 2012-13 onwards. JICA also provided Pakistan over $193 million in loan assistance.

Widening the tax net

The Parliamentary Secretary informed the house that the government intends to bring 100,000 new tax payers under the tax net during the current financial year.

Government also aims to bring 100,000 new tax payers in each of the following two years, said Khan.

The parliamentary secretary added that over 61,000 potential tax payers have been issued notices requiring filing of tax return during the current financial year.

To another question‚ he said the cumulative impact of devaluation of rupee on foreign debt since 2008 is over Rs1.909 trillion.