No plan to further tax salaried class: Tarin

ISLAMABAD: Ruling out the possibility of committing ‘manipulation’ for jacking up the GDP growth figures, Minister for Finance Shaukat Tarin has said the government would get the desired fiscal space from the IMF to avoid burdening masses more in the upcoming budget.

“The IMF will allow us fiscal space to adopt the bottom-up approach as the government plans to shift benefits of inclusive growth to general masses instead of waiting for trickle-down effects,” the minister said while replying to a query whether the IMF will show a lenient attitude for the coming budget while addressing a virtual news briefing here on Sunday.

He said the government would introduce targeted subsidy as out of 35 million households of electricity, currently 29 million were getting power at subsidized rates.

The government, he said, will target 40-45 percent population living below the poverty line for providing targeted subsidies on electricity, flour, and other essential items. Tarin said the government had no plans to further tax the salaried class that was one of the conditions of the IMF.

He said the government would bring an incentivised tax package for retailers as done by Turkey, Columbia and others for bringing them into the tax net. He said that he did not allow hiking of POL prices after assuming charge as the government had reduced petroleum levy and sales tax to keep the prices of petroleum products at existing levels.

Shaukat Tarin unveiled the government’s plan for adopting bottom up approach in the upcoming budget instead of waiting for trickle down effects for providing dividends of GDP growth to the poor. With the approval of PM Imran Khan, a major scheme will be launched from the next fiscal for providing general masses basic necessities of life such as education, health and other facilities.

“It is totally wrong that SAPM on Revenues Dr Waqar Masood convened any meeting of PBS high-ups for pressurising them to jack up the GDP growth figures. The Ministry of Finance has nothing to do with this GDP growth figures because now PBS has been handed over to the Ministry of Planning. I will urge minister for planning to come forward and brief the media on GDP’s provisional figures,” Federal Minister Shaukat Tarin said.

He said that anyone could see the GDP growth figures as he was the one who granted autonomy to the PBS. Now it is no more into the domain of the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Planning was supervising the PBS right now, he maintained.

To another query regarding revision into the Budget Strategy Paper (BSP) for upcoming budget and re-negotiation with the IMF for seeking softening of conditions, the quarantined minister replied that the Budget Strategy Paper (BSP) for 2021-22 was already revised and now the IMF would be convinced to show a lenient attitude, while the government would stick to its commitment for not raising the power tariff any more. But the circular debt will not be allowed to further hike, he said and added that an alternate strategy would be placed to tackle this arising monster.

The FBR’s revenues, he said, would be increased and the collection target would be jacked up close to IMF’s given target of Rs5,963 billion but it would be done through broadening of tax base with the help of innovation and technology but without burdening further the existing taxpayers.

He said that the EAC devised short, medium and long strategies with regard to 12 important sectors and the devised plans would be submitted before PM Imran Khan by end of the ongoing month.

The main objective, he said, was achieving price stability and increasing GDP growth trajectory towards 5 percent next fiscal and moving towards 6 to 7 percent on sustained basis. While replying to another query about the last NFC Award, the minister defended the last NFC arrangement, arguing that the federal government had envisaged to increase the tax to GDP ratio by 1 percent, so after one decade it should have gone up from 10 to 20 percent. The FBR’s collection should have increased to Rs10,000 billion and all financial difficulties would have evaporated but it did not happen.

On the monster of circular debt, he said the last government constructed power projects, which generated excessive power. The capacity payment that stood at Rs465 billion would touch peak at Rs1,455 billion by fiscal year 2023. There is a solution to utilize extra capacity because tariff cannot be hiked further and it had already put severe pressure on the people of Pakistan, he added.

To another query about the FATF, he said that there were politically motivated conditions which India wanted to use as pressurizing tactics but Pakistan’s friends would also help to come her out of the grey list.

He said that Pakistan had accomplished the FATF conditions and there were only transactions related demands left and it was hoped that Pakistan would get a favorable response in the upcoming June meeting. He said that efforts were underway to get $800 million outstanding dues from the PTCL.

The Finance Minister said Imran Khan was the one who had given the idea to introduce the third Umpire in the international Cricket and he himself had granted autonomy to the PBS so he would never support any effort to jack up growth figures.

Courtesy www.thenews.com.pk

No plan to further tax salaried class: Tarin

Courtesy www.thenews.com.pk

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