F.P. Report
ISLAMABAD: Minister for Information, Broadcasting, Culture and National Heritage Attaullah Tarar on Monday said that credit for minimum taxes and tax exemptions to multiple sectors in the budget went to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif who aced tough negotiations with the IMF.
“The prime minister played a proactive role in negotiations with the International Monetary Fund to ensure minimum duties and tax exemption for different sectors,” he said while addressing a press conference. “Let me be very clear that there is no tax on solar panels, text books, pensioners’ income, fertilizers, charitable hospitals and health equipment, and it is all due to the prime minister who wants the nation to be prosper and self-empowered,” he said.
The minister said there were multiple sectors on which the tax rates were reduced to 35 % from 45%. PM Shehbaz also ensured that the petroleum development levy to be maintained at Rs 60 in the current fiscal year. However, only Rs 10 margin had to be given as a contingency measure, he noted. The minister said the provision of Rs 38 per unit electricity to exporters was a major relief for industry, clarifying that the exports dividends were only taxed in the budget.
No tax had been imposed on low wagers while only Rs 1,200 would be deducted from the salaries of those who earned Rs 100,000, he said, adding the high salaried persons were taxed in the budget. He termed the 15 per cent increase in minimum wage from Rs 32,000 to Rs 37,000 as a major step of the government to provide a relief to the salaried class urging the private sector to ensure its implementation in letter and spirit.
The minister said he had requested the Pakistan Broadcasters Association and All Pakistan Newspapers Society to ensure minimum wage and clear all the outstanding dues of journalists and media workers. Responding to the critics, Tarar said Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had introduced home-grown reforms to ensure growth of the national economy which was in free fall by the end of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government.
The economic reforms reflected his out of the box approach that had a sole purpose to boost the revenues and curtail the expenditures for the current fiscal year, he added. The minister said the dissolution of the Public Works Department and privatization of state-owned enterprises were practical demonstration of his vision for bringing down the expenditures, and to increase the revenues. Moreover, the government was carrying forward its agenda of digitizing the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR).
The prime minister, he said, had formed a downsizing and rightsizing committee which would be chaired by Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb to implement the privatization agenda of the government for the SOEs. The minister categorically stated that the cabinet members were not withdrawing any salary, perks and privileges that showed their commitment to reducing the expenditures.
