Mohammad Ali
Urdu Point
Published Date: Jan 25, 2019
Gov’t To Announce Medium-term Economic Framework Next Week, Hammad Azhar
ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News – 25th Jan, 2019 ) :Minister of State for Revenue, Hammad Azhar Friday termed the economic reform package as neutral budget in term of fiscal and monetary measures but to revive and facilitate the investments and growth.
He said Pakistan Tahreek-a-Insaf (PTI) government would announce a medium-term economic framework in next week, whereas further supply-side measures would be taken to boost exports and investments.
Moreover, the government was moving towards direct taxation regime while gradually curtailing the indirect taxation, he added.
He said this while speaking at the public seminar titled "Economic Reforms: Way forward", organized by Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI), here.
Hammad Azhar said, "our economy is consumption based economy, where in the last ten years, our fiscal and monitory policies failed to revive growth and facilitate investments in the country".
He said PTI government has taken tough measures which now resulted in the stabilization of the economy. The sole aim of this economic reform package was to boost the supply side of the economy and to enhance production and exports to its true potential, he added.
Moreover, he said the incumbent government has proposed in this Economic Reform Package a simplified and friendly tax regime to ensure ease in doing businesses.
While responding to a question, he said the government neither planning nor in favor of any amnesty tax regime so far.
Chairman, board of Investment (BoI) Haroon Sharif said all foreign state visits of Prime Minister were fundamentally to reach out investors and investments to get economy out of the crisis.
He said at BoI our objectives are 4-fold: increasing productivity, technology transfer, facilitate investments that support the export sector and job creation.
He said phase one of China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) has become mature and in second phase five concrete proposals from China, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Malaysia and Korea in the sectors of oil industry, renewable energy, hospitality and tourism would be worked out.
"The feedback that we receive from the investors and business community was on taxation structure which is repressive, inconsistency in policies and lack of contract enforcement capacity" said Haroon adding that with the help of technology the government reduce taxes to 16 from 47 types of taxes which was a significant improvement, whereas the government intended to reduce these taxes further to single tax in next one year.
He said these corrective measures have set the direction of the economy, which would build confidence among investors.
Executive Director SDPI, Dr Abid Qaiyum Suleri, said the Economic Reform Package of the government was an attempt to improve the cost and ease of doing businesses.
He said sometimes governments ought to take unpopular corrective measures to get the economy out of the crisis.
This is for the first time that any government is trying toengage Gulf States in an institutional manner which is a positive step forward towardsimproved ties with Gulf regions states, he added.
Source: https://www.urdupoint.com/en/business/govt-to-announce-medium-term-economic-framew-539819.html