MULTAN: The government has decided to completely eliminate the concessionary regime through Statutory Regulatory Orders (SROs) rollback in the next budget.
Federal Finance Minister Ishaq Dar said this while addressing a gathering of industrialists and traders at the Multan Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MCCI). Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Revenue Haroon Akhtar Khan, Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Law Ashtar Ausaf, Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) Chairman Nisar Muhammad Khan, MCCI President Fareed Mughees Sheikh and other prominent industrialists and officials were also present.
Dar said that tax growth that was around 3.38 per cent jumped up to 33 per cent in the first year and this year the tax growth was 18 per cent. He said that the government was endeavouring hard to bring financial discipline to improve the national economy and ensuring prudent utilisation of resources to propel growth.
The country’s economic growth has surged to over five per cent this year from last year’s 4.24 per cent and positive indicators suggested it would soon reach the 6.7 per cent mark, he added.
Ishaq Dar announced that the refund cases below or up to Rs5 million would be resolved by March 15 and their refund payment orders (RPOs) would be issued shortly. He added that the PML-N government took only two years to improve the economic indicators to a status that triggered commendations and acknowledgement from 22 international economic institutions.
World economists applauded Pakistan’s economic performance and British economist Jim O Neill said in his report that Pakistan had the potential to become the 18th largest economy by 2050, Ishaq Dar said, adding that today Pakistan’s economy was ranked at 44th in the world.
He said the new auto policy was being fine tuned and hopefully would be announced within next two to three weeks. He said that the economic road map that brought about a turnaround in the national economy was a part of party’s election manifesto.
Dar further said that 10,000 megawatt of electricity would be added to the national grid by March 2018 to overpower the electricity shortage and loadshedding.
But this does not ends here, he said adding that 15000 Megawatt of electricity would be added through other power generation projects including Dasu dam power project, Karachi civil nuclear power project, Diamer Bhasha power project and others.
