Dar says goal is to boost economy’s global ranking

Says govt has taken number of reforms that have helped improve growth

MULTAN: Finance Minister Ishaq Dar said that the administration’s goal is to improve the country’s economy and increase its international ranking to reach 18 from the current 44th position.

Delivering his speech at the Multan Chamber of Commerce & Industry (MCCI), Dar said that the world had realised that Pakistan is set to take off and several counties including Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and China are interested to invest in the country.

The meeting was chaired by MCCI President Fareed Mughis Sheikh, while Prime Minister’s adviser on revenue Haroon Akhtar Khan and Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) Chairman Nisar Muhammad Khan also accompanied the Finance Minister.



Dar added that the national economic growth had jumped to 5% this year from last year’s 4.24% and healthy economic indicators suggested it would soon reach the 6-7% mark.

The minister recalled that there was a time when economists were apprehending economic instability due to poor macro-economic indicators. “They had assessed that any new government would require at least four years to avert default and bring back economic stability,” said Dar.

“However, the PML-N government took only two years to improve economic indicators.”

According to Dar, the government was working on the automobile policy that would be finalised within two or three weeks. “Fresh models of motorcycles, cars and other vehicles would also be introduced very soon.”

Meanwhile, Dar vowed that the government would pay off the refunds to around 34,000 taxpayers who had been demanding payments. The FBR will return Rs5 million each to 34, 000 taxpayers and these would be cleared till March 15, 2016, he said.

He said that the government has accepted all workable suggestions of traders to increase the tax net and had introduced a voluntary tax compliance scheme. “Additionally, the FBR will not investigate the new taxpayers’ previous accounts and will not take legal action against them for the next four years.”

He claimed that if the tax to GDP ratio reached 15%, the government’s annual budget deficit would become zero.

He noted that the budget deficit had already gone down from 8.8% to 4.4% and the FBR’s tax collection had increased from Rs19.44 billion to Rs25.81 billion in two years.

MCCI President Fareed Mughis Sheikh told the finance minister that markets were flooded with smuggled items, causing a loss of billions of rupees to the national exchequer.

The MCCI president pointed out that revenue collection would receive a considerable boost if smuggling and unnecessary import of luxury items were checked.

He proposed that the customs duty on smuggling-prone items should be reduced to discourage the practice and support legal imports.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, March 10^th, 2016.

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