Mr. Shaukat Tareen while addressing media on Thursday has said that his government is working to increase revenue collection by 20 percent annually, bringing total tax collection to Rs 7 trillion over the next two years. Moreover, all necessary measures will be taken to increase development spending by 38 percent to bring the country into a state of adequate and inclusive growth.
In a press conference conducted to counter the Pre-Budget Symposium (PML-N), Finance Minister Shaukat Tareen, along with other members of his economic team, including Energy Minister Hammad Azhar and Industries and Production Minister Khosru Bakhtiyar, said that the current government has no choice but to accept the dire conditions – the International Monetary Fund (IMF) program to overcome the economic hardships left by the previous government in 2018.
Shaukat Tareen said the previous government’s debt-driven growth pushed the current account deficit to an unacceptable level of $ 20 billion, and the current government was “forced” to adopt an IMF program to pay off the remaining debt.
“Even PML-N members have privately admitted that their finance minister Ishaq Dar is poorly managing the economy,” he said, adding that “all credit for saving the economy from collapse belongs to Prime Minister Imran Khan.”
Tareen also noted that despite the difficult economic situation and the Covid pandemic, the economy is growing at four percent this year and is expected to grow by five percent in the next fiscal year and six percent in the next fiscal year.
The minister said that the current government is thinking positively for the next two fiscal years and has prepared a short, medium and long term plan for various sectors of the economy.
The minister added: “we paid capacity payments to IPPs due to lack of planning in the electricity sector by the previous government.”
Tareen said he is confident the government will be able to increase revenues by 20 percent a year to raise total tax collection to Rs 7 trillion over the next two fiscal years.
He said tax collection would increase to Rs 5.8 trillion in the next fiscal year (FY22) from Rs 4.7 trillion this fiscal year, and the government would increase the tax base through the use of technology.
The minister added that nominal growth – inflation and GDP – will be more than 13 percent, and the rest will be replaced by the introduction of a net tax in the retail sector.
In addition, according to him, some benefits will also be available from the budget.
The minister added that the public sector development program will increase by 38% and growth will be higher, inclusive and sustainable by 2022-2023.
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