The Federal Minister for Finance Shaukat Tarin predicted that the economy of Pakistan would grow by six per cent as the incumbent government has dealt with COVID-19 in a better way.
“Growth rate is projected at five percent this year and would move further upwards to six percent during the next fiscal year. The government has developed short and long-term plans to achieve the target,” Tarin said while addressing a virtual press conference.
“The government of Pakistan is doing long-term planning not just to stabilise the economy but to push economic growth,” he added.
The strategy is divided into short, medium, and long-term planning for almost 12 sectors, and the plan will be presented to Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan for approval by the end of May. Shaukat Tarin made these strategies after taking over again as finance minister.
In addition, Pakistan is going through food scarcity and has to import from outside. Tarin blamed the lack of agriculture industry behind food shortage.
By paying attention and taking action against people who are profiting and hoarding food, these issues are addressable. “We will tackle this through the creation of strategic reserves and dump food wherever people try to profit,” Tarin said.
On the financial sector, he said that we will bring more people into the tax net. Besides, people should be encouraged to deposit money into banks so it could be used productively, and the money can be spent on all provinces rather than “nine cities”.
While responding to a question about power tariffs, he said the government would not increase tariffs to prevent further burden on the people, and the same would follow for taxes.
He said the International Monetary Fund (IMF) had been told that money would instead be collected through other “innovative ways” and he had “full hope” that the IMF would give space.
He also explained that Pakistan had fulfilled most of the Financial Action Task Force’s conditions with one or two “transactional items” left so he said the government was hopeful of a favourable response in the meeting in June.
