ISLAMABAD: Adviser to Prime Minister on Finance and Revenue Dr Abdul HafeezShaikh said on Wednesday that Pakistan was among the few developingcountries to adopt common reporting standards (CRS), as it had alreadystarted exchanging data with partner jurisdictions.

He stated this while addressing the Plenary Meeting of the Global Forum on“Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes 2020”, organizedby OECD.

The adviser said that Pakistan has achieved important milestones intransparency and exchange of information and appreciated the technicalsupport extended by the global forum and the UK government, which wasinstrumental in implementing the CRS.

Hafeez Shaikh outlined that tax transparency and exchange of informationwere powerful tools to enhance tax compliance. “Pakistan is firmlycommitted to fighting tax evasion and other illicit financial flows andneed more international cooperation for cross-border assistance in taxrecovery,” he stressed.

The adviser also briefed the forum about the negative impact of Covid-19pandemic and measures taken by the government to mitigate the sufferings ofvulnerable groups.

During the Covid-19 outbreak, he said, the government had introduced ‘smartlockdowns’ to contain the spread of the disease while keeping the economymoving. “The smart lockdown approach was acknowledged worldwide as itallowed many businesses to re-open or continue operations on limited scaleto lessen the adverse economic impact during testing times.”

In addition, he said, the government also handed out cash stipends to 15million families under “Ehsaas Emergency Cash Payments”.