Tarin says real estate, stocks, agriculture to be taxed

[Naveed Yaseen]

KARACHI: Adviser to Prime Minister on Finance & Economic Affairs Shaukat Tarin has said that the government has resolved to reduce the country’s fiscal deficit from 7.4 per cent to 4.3 per cent of GDP within a year.

He said that the government had already planned revenue enhancement strategies which would help stabilise both foreign exchange reserves and balance of payments.

Tarin met with prominent members of the business community at the Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI) on Saturday where he expressed concern over the news that the business community was facing a severe crisis because of the present economic and financial conditions prevailing in the country.

He explained that the first and foremost measure would be to tax those sectors which had been provided relief by the government until now, adding that real estate, agriculture and stock market would be amongst the sectors to be brought under the tax net.

He further said that the private sector would be involved in public sector projects and cited the example of India which had taken the services of private sector businessmen in utilities.

Tarin stressed that the government needed to rationalise its expenditures and “stop wastage of precious resources.” He said that a helpline was being set up where businessmen could call and complain if local banks were cancelling their credit lines.

“If a bank has liquidity problems then it should inform its customers and cannot cancel credit lines of businessmen, and therefore this helpline would aid the business community in providing solutions if any problem does arise,” he added.

Shaukat Tarin said that his government would ensure that interest rates of banks were brought down to below 10 per cent in the next two to three years as it would help establish better industries.

He was of the view that macroeconomic indicators needed to be stabilised in which curbing of inflation remained the government’s top priority, adding if inflation was controlled the local currency would also remain in control, thus solving some of the macroeconomic problems.

He opined, “We have plans to establish different industrial parks where each one may specialise in its sector concerned.

We should be a production-based country and not consumption-based. There is no such thing as a local industry and an export industry as both industries are ours and if local industries progress, then they would start exporting too.”

Tarin requested the business community to give him 30 days for plans to be implemented and repeatedly stressed that they would be involved in decision-making.

He stated that the government had decided to involve stakeholders from every sector in the Planning Commission, particularly business leaders, and this think tank would help in institutional building.

He appealed to the business community to join hands with the government and work along with it as the country was in crisis and needed its people to help revive the rapidly falling economy.

“It has been most unfortunate that Pakistan keeps falling back to where it started from,” Tarin commented. “We were close to becoming the Asian Tigers and broke several records, however, we once again face economic crisis,” he said.

Tarin shared that all their plans A, B and C that he had announced earlier in the week involved the people of Pakistan in the form of banking sector, agriculture sector, energy, gas and petroleum sector amongst others.

He articulated that one mechanism that the government had planned out was to determine household incomes of the rich and poor people of Pakistan and only after an assessment would financial relief be provided to the poor class of the community, such as lower electricity bills, whereas others would have to abide by the state laws.

http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=143114