Finance Minister Ishaq Dar will brief the federal cabinet on the budgetary targets, development programme and taxation proposals for the next financial year in the capital on Tuesday (today).
An official source said that after taking the cabinet into confidence the minister will jointly chair the important meeting of the Annual Plan Coordination Committee (APCC) with Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal to finalise the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) for the next financial year.
The government has projected a GDP growth of 5.5 per cent with PSDP of Rs 580 billion for the next financial year. However, the government failed to achieve the GDP growth rate target of 5 percent for the current financial year due to significant decline in the agriculture, industrial and services sectors. The government plans to announce Rs 250 billion worth of projects under the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project.
The government was not likely to impose new taxes in the next budget, some sources said, adding that it will continue the old practice of administrative measures to meet the next fiscal year’s tax collection target of Rs 3,100 billion. The tax collection target for the next fiscal year is enhanced by Rs 500 billion as compared to the current fiscal’s revised target of Rs 2,605 billion.
This growth will automatically come through the increase in economy and inflation, a source said, adding that it means the government wants the businessmen to invest and enhance stagnating growth.
The interest rate has already been lowered to seven percent. The government has acceded before a parliamentary panel that the major decline in the tax collection was due to the slowdown in the industrial sector resulting from the lack of demand in the market. The lowering of the interest rate was likely to ignite consumer financing in the country.
