‘Need for innovative policy stance during pandemic’
A paramedic wearing protective gear takes a nasal swab of 103 year-old Abdul Alim, to be tested for the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), at the Aga Khan Health Services Emergency Response Centre in Booni, Chitral. PHOTO: REUTERS
There is a need to adopt an innovative policy stance supporting households from different socioeconomic strata during the coronavirus pandemic, claimed Institute of Business Administration (IBA) executive director Dr S Akbar Zaidi on Friday.
Speaking at the virtual book launch of Policy Response during Challenging Times: Insights from the Federal Budget 2020-21 and the Way Forward, organised by IBA’s economics department, he added that though the Federal Board of Revenue’s (FBR) loss of revenue due to the Covid-19 pandemic was less than half of the Rs900 million mentioned in the budget speech, the pandemic had only exacerbated the FBR’s poor performance.
The book’s authors - Dr Zaidi, Dr Asma Hyder, Dr Qazi Masood, Dr Muhammad Sabir and others - also highlighted the need for the government to significantly increase public investment and the provision of credit to the private sector in order to achieve the targeted growth rate of 2.1 per cent.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 25th, 2020.