Cabinet approves budget proposals

Prime Minister Nawaz says main objective of new budget was to provide relief to the masses and increase tax base.

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Tuesday said that main objective of the new budget was to provide relief to the masses and increase tax base.

The government has taken some difficult decisions to facilitate people and it would have to bear the burden, he said while chairing a special cabinet meeting at the Prime Minister’s Office in which the federal budget 2014-15 and tax proposals were approved.

Emphasising the challenges being addressed in the budget, the prime minister said the focus was on accelerating investment, increasing development expenditure, export promotion, facilitating private sector investment, generating employment opportunities, restructuring of public sector corporations and expansion of social safety network.

He added that measures to promote industry and agriculture were main features of the budget. He also directed the tax authorities to lessen the tax burden on the lower strata of the society.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 4^th, 2014.