ISLAMABAD: The overall economic indicators have shown a positive growth owing to the prudent policies of the incumbent government, State Minister for Revenue Hammad Azhar claimed on Tuesday.
“We inherited a weak economy from the previous government and now after introducing the supplementary bill 2018, the country’s economic situation is improving gradually,” the minister informed the National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Finance, Revenue and Economic Affairs.
The meeting was chaired by MNA Faizullah in the Parliament House.
The state minister said on the fiscal side, the healthy growth in revenue could not keep up the pace with a sharp rise in the fiscal expenditure during FY2018. Consequently, he added, the fiscal deficit stood at 6.6 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) against 5.8 per cent of GDP recorded during FY2017.
He further informed that the fiscal deficit has widened to 2.7pc of GDP during the first six months of FY19 as compared to the deficit of 2.3pc in the corresponding period of last fiscal year.
The state minister said tax collection by the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) posted a growth of 3.2pc during July-January FY19 and amounted to Rs2,058.195 billion as compared to Rs1,995.146 billion recovered during the same period of FY18.
He said in order to address the issues pertaining to low revenue collection and narrow tax base, the government had separated the tax policy function of FBR from tax administration.
He said that the services sector holds the dominant share of 6pc in Pakistan’s real GDP. “The sector will likely to be benefitted from the growth in the industrial and agriculture sectors going forward,” he added.
Similarly, Azhar informed, the government’s reforms programmes, especially in Pakistan Railways, Pakistan International Airline, Zarai Tarakiati Bank and House Building Finance Company, will start paying dividends and will also provide a substantial impetus to its various sub-sectors, particularly the wholesale and retail businessmen.
He said that during the first seven months of current fiscal year, remittances increased by 12.22pc, which also helped in the containment of the current account deficit.
He further said the focus of the current government is to improve the investment climate in order to attract foreign investment in the country, adding that the government had taken different initiatives at the international level in this regard.
The minister revealed that Pakistan had recently signed offshore gas pipeline deal with Russia.
“Similarly, Saudi Arabia has shown a keen interest in the new oil refinery in Pakistan’s growing deep seaport of Gwadar, which is likely to increase Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in the country,” he added.
MNAs Ahsan Iqbal, Dr Aisha Ghaus Pasha, Syed Naveed Qamar, Hina Rabbani Khar, Nusrat Javed, Faheem Khan, Ali Pervaiz and senior officials of the Ministry of Finance and Revenue attended the meeting.
