PESHAWAR: Feb 26 (NNI): Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb has urged private sector to play their due role for increase in the country’s exports, adding that all sectors will have to chip in.
Addressing the business community in Peshawar, the finance minister said the government was using modern technology in FBR to minimize human intervention. He made it clear that main focus of FBR should be focus on tax collection.
Aurangzeb said the government was taking steps to reduce human intervention in tax collection. Raising the tax-to-GDP ratio is a key condition of Pakistan’s $7bn loan deal with the IMF, which was needed to shore up a faltering economy and manage its mounting debts.
He said in 2023, the country’s dwindling foreign reserves had raised alarm bells, as they reached $4.6 billion which were barely enough to cover three weeks’ worth of imports and the rupee underwent its biggest devaluation in history of 15pc.
The Finance Minister said Pakistan and IMF had reached a three-year, $7bn aid package deal in July 2024, with the new programme set to allow the country to cement macroeconomic stability and create conditions for stronger, more inclusive and resilient growth.
The ongoing 37-month Extended Funded Facility programme consists of six reviews over the life of the bailout, and the release of the next tranche of approximately $1bn will be contingent on the success of the performance review.
Under the ongoing Extended Fund Facility of the IMF, Pakistan had given an undertaking to set up TPO under the supervision of the finance minister to ensure it had sufficient teeth for policy implementation, according to IMF documents. NNI
