Finance Minister Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh expressed resolve to bring all privileged classes under tax net and asked the parliamentarians, businessmen and media house owners to set an example by ‘honestly’ paying their taxes and this will be a great national service.
Winding up debate on next year’s federal budget, the Minister claimed that fiscal deficit would be brought down to four per cent by checking the inflation rate while the government’s team would achieve its targets set for the Budget 2011-12. He said the FBR has been made vibrant and revenue target of Rs1,588 billion will be achieved.
He stressed that the government has taken tough political decisions and it has cut expenditures and borrowings from the State Bank to stabilise the economy and checking the price hike. Rejecting the impression that the government had withdrawn subsidies, Hafeez Sheikh clarified that subsidies on utility stores’ items, fertiliser and wheat procurement programme were intact for the benefit of the common man.
“We are going towards targeted subsidies which will directly benefit the disadvantaged segments of the society. The scope of social safety net has been widened and in this regard more resources have been allocated for the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP), macro financing, internship programmes and the Baitul Maal,” he added.
Referring to the allocations for social sector, the Finance Minister said that despite being a provincial subject, the federal government had allocated resources for the Higher Education Commission (HEC) and for different health an education programmes. He said that efforts would be made to bring the less-developed areas at par with developed regions and for this purpose adequate resources will be released.
Shaikh went on to say that serious efforts were underway to improve the tax-to-GDP ratio to bring all potential sectors under the tax net. He said 700,000 affluent persons have been identified with the help of different institutions. Out of these, he added, 78,000 have been issued notices and tax has been collected from 1,000 persons. About the agriculture tax, Hafeez Sheikh expressed the confidence that the provincial governments in this connection would take necessary actions as per the constitution.
He said the government was following pro-agricultural policies which will bring prosperity in the lives of the rural population as well significantly impacting on the industrial sector as well. Welcoming the proposals of the members of the National Assembly and the Senate, the Minister said that twenty recommendations of the Senate would be incorporated in the Finance Bill 2011-12 while the general recommendations would also be reflected in the future policies of the country.
He stated that all identified affluent persons will be brought into the tax net to help the country achieve self reliance. He said the economy suffered shocks due to the flash floods last year and the ongoing war against terrorism but the country still managed a growth rate of 2.5 per cent and kept the inflation rate at 12 to 13 per cent. He claimed that due to the government’s policies, the country has registered an unprecedented increase in exports, foreign remittances and the foreign exchange reserves.
