Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb has said that the government will provide all facilities but not back down from expanding the tax net.
“We are moving towards complete digitalization; it will increase revenues and also bring transparency,” he said further. Addressing a pre-budget conference in Lahore, the minister said there was a need for structural reforms, adding that a lot of reforms had to be carried out regarding tax-to-GDP, energy and privatization issues.
Pakistan will have to go towards privatization for economic stability, he declared, adding that reforms had to be done in the energy and privatization sectors. “The government’s job is to make policy, while it’s the private sector that has to do the work.”
Mohammad Aurangzeb said that giving a uniform energy tariff to industries is a legitimate demand, as they could not work at 25 to 26% interest rate. “We have to completely eliminate electricity theft. The boards of power distribution companies are being changed,” he emphasised.
The finance minister further claimed that the economic indicators had improved in the last seven to eight months, adding that presently, the current account deficit is less than $1 billion. “At present, the currency is stable, the stock exchange is at an all-time high and inflation is falling,” he added.
He further said that an IMF team had reached Pakistan and the negotiations with them would kickstart from tomorrow. “This program will be very important and long-term,” he insisted.
Aurangzeb said Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and the caretaker government had fulfilled the nine-month IMF agreement well.
