Finance Minister calls for accelerating export-led growth
Terms tax award winners ‘national heroes’
Finance Minister Muhammed Aurangzeb Khan called for accelerating export-led growth, adding that import-led subsidised businesses were no longer sustainable. “For any country’s development and growth, direct taxes on the domestic side and exports on the external front are the levers of growth and development.
“In Pakistan’s case, both floors have been raised out,” he added, pointing out that the government needs to go into “implementation and execution right away in terms of restructuring”. “Rather than getting into a debating club on the FBR side, we have to begin appointing consultants for design and implementation in terms of end-to-end digitalisation,” he said.
Aurangzeb elaborated that there was a need to plug leakages through end-to-end digitalisation, adding that there was huge room for improvement in terms of operational effectiveness going forward.
“Import-led subsidy businesses are not sustainable anymore,” he asserted, adding that the private sector had to lead the country. “We have to accelerate export-led growth,” he said, highlighting that the private sector had one job which was to focus on improving productivity in their operations while the government had the job of “providing the policy framework and providing policy continuity”.
On a closing note, the finance minister said such reforms would require “a lot of hard work, a lot of honesty, a lot of dedication”, adding that the government was “at your service at all times”.
Separately, Minister for Finance and Revenue Muhammad Aurangzeb on Tuesday termed the tax award winners ‘national heroes,’ urging the countrymen to pay their due taxes being responsible citizens. “You [the tax award winners] are really our national heroes. The entire nation and the country should follow you as a beacon of light,” the minister said while addressing the Tax Excellence Awards distribution ceremony here. The high taxpayers were awarded with the prizes by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.
Highlighting importance of tax collection in revenue generation, Aurangzeb said direct tax on domestic side and exports on the external front were levers of the growth and development. “In Pakistan’s case, the both flows have been raise-bound and therefore underwhelming, and redressing them on urgently basis is critical.”
The finance minister reiterated a firm resolve of the government for restructuring and digitization of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), for which it was in process of appointing consultants “for design and implementation in term of end to end digitalization.
He talked about bringing structural reforms, doing endto-eng digitalization and ensuring transparency in the taxcollection system, stressing that “We have to plug the leakages. There is a huge room for improvement in operational effectiveness of something rolled out few years back.”
Aurangzeb was of the view to restore the confidence of superior clients’ trust [high tax payers] in the government policies and transparency in the tax-collection system, which would help expand the tax-base.
The minister warned that the import-led and subsidysupported businesses were not sustainable anymore and the country would have to accelerate export the ledgrowth to achieve the trajectory of sustainable growth.
He urged the private sector to continue improving productivity in industrial operations, assuring that the government would provide them best policy framework, competitive energy and IT developed skills, which would lead to the government to progress and prosperity.