Federal budget gives direction for economic stabilization: Ministry of Finance

Jun 24: Official Spokesperson and Adviser, Ministry of Finance, Dr. Khaqan Hassan Najeeb on Monday said the macroeconomic stabilization was need of the hour for the economy and this federal budget 2019-20 gives the direction of economic stabilization through curbing the imports and supporting the exports measures.

This budget is directionally and strategically a strong budget, he said.

Addressing a public seminar titled “SDPI Post-Budget (2019-20) Analysis”, organized by the Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI) at Islamabad, Dr Khaqan said this budget was rightly moving in this direction to help reduce the fiscal deficit, where fiscal deficit was around 7 percent of the GDP, said a press release issued by SDPI here.

He said 11 per cent tax to-GDP ratio was not sustainable and expenses on civil and other side need to be controlled.

Dr. Khaqan said ambitious tax revenue target of 5555 billion rupee shows the direction of the budget, which indicates government objective to enhance its revenue collection through austerity measures and direct taxation.

He said this budget was highly subsidized, where Ahsas program had been raised to 193 billion rupee from around 120 billion, electricity subsidy had been raised from 168 billion to 217 billion, there had been allocation for Naya Pakistan Housing Scheme and Kamyab Jawan Program to help protect the low strata of the society.

He said custom duties on 1650 items had been decreased and tax target had been increased by 38 per cent, after comprehensive consultation with stakeholders to help strengthen the industry.

However, there is need to improve regulatory regime with market development and need to be part of global value chain.

He said macroeconomic stabilization had largely been gained, where current account deficit had been reduced and export had been picked up in quantitative terms.

While commenting on the government amnesty scheme, Dr Khaqan said that this amnesty scheme was not for revenue generation but to tie-up with the tax revenue targets and to give a chance to tax evaders to become part of productive economy.

He said Benami Law of 2017 is now effective in the country which will be implemented from the 1st July 2019, whereas, the government has the details of 152 thousand expat’s foreign assets data and bank accounts, 14 thousands unregistered cars and data of transactions of domestic accounts.

APP