Proper tax collection improved Pakistan’s development budget: Ahsan Iqbal

Ahsan Iqbal says country’s economic volume has gone up to $300 billion

ISLAMABAD: Minister for Planning, Ahsan Iqbal, has said that the country’s development budget has increased as a result of proper tax collection, Radio Pakistan reported on Tuesday.

The minister, in an interview, said that due to concrete measures of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government, the national economy was improving and strengthening every day.

According to Iqbal, Pakistan’s economic volume went up to $300 billion.



He said that under China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), 10,000 Megawatt power projects have been launched to end load-shedding from the country.

The minister added that the power projects will bring an economic revolution in the country.

In March 2017, however, Pakistan’s tax base shrunk further because only one million people filed their income tax returns in the current tax year, a decrease of almost 17% or 200,000 people, calling into question claims of broadening the tax base.

The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) had published the ‘Active Taxpayer List’ for the tax year 2016, comprising only 1,013,528 entries.