ISLAMABAD: Federal Finance Minister Asad Umar has said that the first decision of the new cabinet was to form a powerful taskforce to recover unlawful wealth stashed abroad.
In a tweet, he said message to those who have stolen public money and hid it abroad is loud and clear.
Meanwhile, talking to media at Karachi Airport, Finance Minister Asad Umar has said PTI will make revolutionary changes in economy with support of the people.
He said tax base will be increased for revenue generation by revamping the FBR.
Finance Minister said the looted wealth of the country will be brought back and people’s money will be spent on people. He said all decisions will be made in parliament. He said all the steps can be successful only with the cooperation of people.
Asad Umar said the newly elected government will create employment opportunities for youth as part of its election manifesto. Asad Umar said Karachi being the largest city and financial hub of the country is engine of the economy.
Finance Minister said all out resources will be used for generation of revenue. He said our immediate focus will be on giving relief to pensioners and widows.
Umar said that the government would soon decide whether to present a fresh federal budget or come up with some other way to lay out the actual economic situation in parliament.
Responding to a question, the minister said employees would not be laid off. Instead, he added, the current staff will be reoriented to work towards delivering public service – and not just continue to serve the few at the expense of the many. “We are not going to sack or send home any labour. We are not going to create unemployment,” he said.
The finance minister said that it is a misnomer that thousands of laborers inducted into the public sector was the cause of the downfall of public sector entities like the Pakistan Steel Mill and Pakistan International Airlines.
He said that there might be people who were not utilised or those who should not have been inducted in the first place, but it was the ineffectual management and the incompetence of past governments that was the underlying cause of the unprofitability of the public sector.
Umar added that nobody, including himself, knew exactly how much wealth Pakistanis had stashed abroad, except the $8 billion invested in the Dubai real estate market, as stated by the Dubai Real Estate Authority. Clearly, he said, they were “huge amounts and since we have been talking about this, the first decision of the cabinet under Prime Minister Imran Khan was to constitute a task force, which has been given two weeks to formulate a strategy to repatriate the looted money that has been filtered out of Pakistan thanks to years of corruption”.
Umar said that the former finance minister, Ishaq Dar, had stated on the floor of the National Assembly that $200 billion had been stashed abroad. But, he added, the previous government had failed to take any concrete measures to repatriate the money.
The government, Umar said, had not yet taken a final decision about issuing bonds to overseas Pakistanis, but decided, in principle, to offer bonds and sukuk to expatriates.
He said he had been given a broad review of the economic situation during his visit to the ministry, and that there were several daunting challenges, but there were also many opportunities.
Umar said that the previous government had rolled out an unrealistic budget that had nothing to do with the realities on the ground. He said that the prime minister had decided to lay out the dire circumstances and actual realities before parliament. The finance minister said that the position of the fiscal deficit and the steps required to remedy the colossal problems would also be presented on the floor of the house.
“We will formulate a comprehensive and integrated economic strategy to address all the challenges we face today,” Umar said, adding that the plan to save the economy would involve raising funds by reaching out to expatriates.