Prospects of Pakistan’s economic survival are contingent upon two conditions namely doubling the tax-to-GDP ratio and completely over-hauling the expenditure priorities, said senior analyst Professor Dr Aqdas Ali Kazmi while addressing a seminar on “The Federal Budget 2014-15 and Pakistan’s Economic Prospects” arranged by the Punjab University Pakistan Study Centre on Wednesday.
Faculty of Arts and Humanities Dean Prof Dr Massarrat Abid, faculty members and a large number of students were present on the occasion.
Addressing the seminar, he said the total size of the budget of about Rs 4.0 trillion, 13.6 percent of GDP, indicated a squeezed fiscal space due to abysmally low tax effort at 9.7 percent of GDP. He said a small fraction was left for a host of social and economic services, civil administration, subsidies and overall development.
He said that the government should keep health, education, industry, energy and water resources on priority.
In her address Dr Massarrat Abid highlighted the major problems Pakistan had been facing for last several decades, emphasising on the country’s imbalance in resources and her expenditures. She said the culture of tax evasion and the growing debt needed to be dealt with on top priority basis by the leadership.