ISLAMABAD: Newly appointed Advisor to Prime Minister on Finance, Miftah Ismail on Wednesday reiterated his resolve of keeping a focus on increasing the country’s economic growth and boost its exports.
This follows a day after he assumed charge as Advisor to PM on Finance and met informally with officials of Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) and the Finance Ministry on Wednesday.
Ismail said he had an aim for making the economy grow, make it more resilient besides advancing objective of inclusion and sustainable growth as envisioned by PML-N’s leadership, reported an English daily.
He added efforts would be undertaken to boost exports and increase economic growth. Ismail said coordinated efforts will be made to broaden the tax base and also reducing the tax rates.
Urging all relevant parties to work in cohesion, Ismail said they should all work as a team to be able to achieve these goals.
Miftah Ismail is expected to be debriefed soon by the Finance divisions about how they operate and work. An official opined that raising exports besides reining in twin deficits would be a huge challenge for Ismail.
A few weeks ago, in interaction with the media, Ismail said fiscal/current account deficits are major challenges for the economy and highlighted budget deficit would be an issue until imbalances created by 7th NFC award aren’t addressed.
He stressed about revisiting distribution of resources between provincial governments and federation, as latter needs to be reinforced in terms of resources. He accepted the significance of permitting provinces financial freedom, but not at the cost of the federation.
