ISLAMABAD – Advisor to Prime Minister on Finance Dr. Abdul Hafeez Sheikhsays economy will be in stabilization mode over next six to twelve monthsbefore moving in the phase of recovery and high growth.
He was unveiling economic roadmap at a news conference in Islamabad thisafternoon along with government economic team including Minister forPlanning Khusro Bakhtyar, Power Minister Omar Ayub, Minister of State forRevenue Hammad Azhar, FBR Chairman Shabbar Zaidi and Special Assistant toPM on Information Dr. Firdous Ashiq Awan.
Giving an overview of the economic indicators the PTI government facedafter coming into power, Dr. Abdul Hafeez Shaikh said incumbent governmentinherited 31000 billion rupees as domestic debt and foreign loans werehovering around 100 billion dollars.
He said foreign reserves stood at less than 10 billion dollars whileexports in last five years registered zero percent growth. He said tradedeficit was touching the mark of 20 billion dollars while fiscal deficithad reached at a staggering amount of 2300 billion rupees. Besides,circular debt was increasing by 38 billion rupees each month.
Advisor to Prime Minister on Finance said the government took various stepsto manage the economy, including raising 9 billion dollars through friendlycountries.
Talking about the next steps of the government, Dr. Abdul Hafeez Shaikhsaid IMF board will give approval in next few weeks to the staff levelagreement signed earlier with Pakistan.
He said the asset declaration scheme introduced by the government will givea chance to people to declare their hidden assets at a very reasonable rateand become part of formal economy.
He said 1.2 billion dollars deferred loan facility of IDB will also startfrom next year and will improve confidence on our economy.
Referring to IMF program, Dr. Abdul Hafeez Shaikh said signing a programmewith IMF will also send good signal worldwide that Pakistan is managing itseconomy in a disciplinary fashion.
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Advisor to PM on Finance said next budget will be austerity oriented. Forrevenue mobilization, he said, a target of 5550 billion rupees target willbe set for FBR.
He said 350 companies are paying 85 percent share of tax in Pakistan. Onlytwo million Pakistanis file taxes and out of which 1.4 million aresalaried. He said new data sources will be explored to identify potentialtax payers to bring them into tax net. He said data of 150,000 Pakistanishas been obtained from 28 countries and it will help determine the taxevaders. He said a sum of 46 billion rupees will be reserved fordevelopment in erstwhile FATA.
Advisor to PM on Finance said a subsidy of two billion rupees has beengiven be the government to provide relief to people in Ramazan andadditional 30 billion rupees will be earmarked for food subsidy in nextbudget.
Advisor to PM on Finance said Kamyab Jawan is another program of thegovernment that with a budget of 100 billion rupees will enable youth tostart their own businesses.
He said agriculture will be given special focus in next budget foremployment generation.
He said in next budget private sector will be motivated to create jobs bygiving them tax breaks on new hiring.
He said PSDP of 925 billion rupees is being given to planning ministry tocomplete the ongoing development projects.
