ISLAMABAD: Additional tax of Rs500 billion will be collected in the next financial year, said Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin in a post-budget press conference Saturday afternoon.
A day earlier, the government had unveiled the budget for fiscal year 2021-22, with the outlay kept at Rs8,478 billion and the tax target set at an ambitious Rs5,829 billion.
Addressing the post-budget press conference in Islamabad, Tarin said the government has presented a total growth budget and their challenge is to stabilise growth. “We have to earn dollars by increasing exports and add an additional tax of Rs500 billion in the next financial year,” he said.
The finance minister said they will reach non-filers through electricity and gas bills.
He said that big retailers have sales of Rs1,500 billion and sales tax has to be levied on all big stores. Consumers, he said, will be rewarded if they get a slip and gave examples of other countries, saying that such successful schemes have come up in Turkey.
The finance minister said that the poor in the country have not received loans and training for the last 70 years.
He said loans will be given from commercial banks to small welfare banks and, in the first phase, four million people will be targeted. The finance minister announced plans to provide employment and give Rs150,000 to small farmers while also giving lists of small farmers and the poor to banks.
Loans up to Rs2 million will be given to build a roof and loans to poor farmers will go up to Rs500,000, he said.
Pakistan has become a food deficient country and we are now importing what we used to export, he said, adding that the country is importing pulses, wheat and sugar.
“We did not pay attention to our crops, but now we will pay attention to it,” he assured.
