The volume of domestic and foreign debt of Pakistan reached Rs75,000 billion by February this year, while the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) collected a whopping Rs820 billion in the taxes from the salaried taxpayers in the last 3 years, the National Assembly was informed on Wednesday.
The Finance Ministry presented the details of the country's debt and other financial data in the lower house of parliament. Accordingly, the country's domestic debt reached Rs51,000, and the external debt reached Rs24,000.
According to the documents, the FBR has collected Rs820 billion in taxes from government and private sector employees during the last three years - Rs186 billion from government employees and Rs634 billion from private sector salaried individuals.
In the last three years, the number of government taxpayers increased by 194,000, while the number of private sector taxpayers has increased by 550,000 people, according to the documents presented in the National Assembly.
Trade policy
Responding to a question during the Question Hour, Parliamentary Secretary for Commerce Zulfiqar Ali Bhatti said that the government was pursuing a policy to improve the country's trade environment through fostering export sectors and contributing to overall economic development.
"The current Strategic Trade Policy Framework includes steps to boost exports competitiveness through various interventions across all sectors," Bhatti said. He added that two new trade missions were being established at Darussalam, Tanzania, and Maputo, Mozambique, to boost trade with Africa.
The Strategic Trade Policy Framework, Bhatti said, "focuses on securing market access through free trade agreements, preferential trade agreements and strengthening trade links with the Central Asians Republics, Turkey, Iran, Europe and Russia.
Similarly, he added a memorandum of understanding (MoU) had been shared with the East African nations to conclude a free trade agreement with Kenya and Rwanda. To another question, he informed the house that bilateral trade volume between Pakistan and Saudi Arabia last fiscal year was $5.7 billion.
The parliamentary secretary for commerce informed the house that Pakistan had successfully secured duty-free concession on more than 94% of Pakistani products in the UK after Brexit – UK's departure from the European Union (EU).
Responding to a separate calling-attention notice, Parliamentary Secretary for Finance Saad Waseem Sheikh told the lawmakers that the federal government had so far provided over Rs600 billion to the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa government for the development of the former tribal areas.
145 unaccredited education institutions
The Higher Education Commission (HEC) has issued warning letters to 145 unregistered educational institutions across the country, and steps are being taken to shut down these institutions. This was revealed by the Ministry of Education during a National Assembly session on Wednesday.
The ministry provided details about the unaccredited educational institutions in the assembly.
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