CNICs to be acceptable as NTNs from July 2015.
Finance Minister Ishaq Dar on Saturday said that he has advised Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to convene an all-party conference (APC) to create a national consensus on long-term economic policy, repeating his support for the idea of a ‘Charter of the Economy’ that he has been stating in public appearances for the last several months.
He said this at a news conference in Islamabad meant to review the government’s progress on economic reforms and announce some policy updates, including the announcement that computerised national identity card (CNIC) numbers would be valid as substitutes for National Taxpayer Numbers (NTNs) from July 2015 onwards.
The ‘Charter of the Economy’ idea was originally floated under the PPP government by former finance minister Shaukat Tarin on January 14, 2010. It is based on the notion that just as the ‘Charter of Democracy’ helped establish democratic norms that have resulted in a national consensus on the need for democracy, a ‘Charter of the Economy’ would help create a clear consensus on long-term economic policies and create a more predictable policy framework that would allow businesses to make investment decisions without major uncertainties about government attitudes.
Dar has been an ardent supporter of the idea since it was first proposed and even after becoming finance minister has been making public statements in its favour, though this appears to be the first time he has called for an APC on the matter. The minister did not make it clear whether or not he had been able to get the premier’s approval for the idea.
At Saturday’s news conference, he laid out the progress the government had made in stabilising the economy and accused the rival Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) of stymying some of that progress through its street protests.
The only major policy initiative he announced was the plan to allow individual taxpayers to use their CNIC numbers for filing tax returns instead of having to apply for NTNs.
Dar used the news conference to announce several macroeconomic numbers – updates on the fiscal deficit, the total amount of remittances sent home by expatriate Pakistanis, etc – all of which have been announced by government agencies in recent weeks. He also repeated policy announcements made earlier, including the 5% increase in the sales tax on petrol products and the decrease of the export refinance interest rate from 7.5% to 6.0%.
The minister also accused the PTI’s protests in Islamabad last year of derailing the $1 billion secondary offering of the Oil and Gas Development Company (OGDC). This accusation seems disingenuous since the investment bankers working on the transaction categorically cited falling global oil prices and the government’s unwillingness to compromise on the offering price as the reasons for the failed transaction.
On the other hand, the minister dismissed the allegations by PTI chief Imran Khan that the government had somehow made Rs300 billion by not reducing petrol prices in Pakistan in tandem with falling global prices.
Published in The Express Tribune, February 1st, 2015.
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