ISLAMABAD – The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) categorically told the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) government on Tuesday that its patience was running out on the slow progress on the 10-point reforms agenda.
Talking to media after holding talks with the PPP ministerial team, Senator Ishaq Dar said his party had informed the government their patience was wearing thin. “We have asked the government to come up with a plan to cut expenditure and raise revenues, similar to the plan we implemented in 2008 to bring the fiscal deficit down to a reasonable level,” he said, adding that the government would be presenting its proposals on February 9 (today).
Finance Minister Dr Abdul Hafeez Sheikh said that the meeting decided that all the banks would give lists of their top 100 waived loans for the committee to scrutinize. State Bank of Pakistan Governor Shahid Hafeez Kardar briefed the committee on waived loans from after 1971.
He said the government shared the proposed reforms in the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) with the PML-N. He said FBR had refunded Rs 18.5 billion in July-December period compared to Rs 6.5 billion refunds the same period last year. He said the FBR had identified 700,000 new taxpayers, who an official source said would be brought into the tax net with the help of NADRA data.
On the price hike, he said that a mechanism would be devised by next week to control free-floating in the prices of essential commodities and the provincial government would be taken on board. A source privy to the parleys said the PML-N voiced concern over the notified boards of the power sector distribution companies and demanded a standard operating procedure for hiring management of the public sector enterprises to curtail nepotism and cronyism.
The government side explained they had hired a consultant firm Deloitte for hiring new management for all power sector companies. However the PML-N team demanded the government first draw up SOPs and share them with it before hiring new management. The government will take up the issue at the meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Restructuring (CCOR) on Wednesday and will submit its recommendations to PML-N in the evening.
The government will also share plans on the proposed restructuring of Pakistan Steel Mills and PIA on Wednesday, he said.
