The government will provide loans to small farmers, customs duties have been abolished or reduced, such reforms have been made for the first time in 30 years, Muhammad Aurangzeb
Islamabad: Federal Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb has said that the government has provided relief to the salaried class as much as possible in the budget.
While holding a post-budget press conference, the Federal Finance Minister said that in the budget presented yesterday, the government has provided relief to the people as much as possible. He said that we have made an export-oriented economy our priority. Out of 7,000 tariff lines, customs duty has been abolished in 4,000 in the budget and such reforms have been made for the first time in 30 years.
He said that the government has reduced customs duty in 2,700 tariff lines, all measures such as the abolition or reduction of customs duty will benefit exporters significantly. He said that it was the desire of the Prime Minister and myself to provide relief to the salaried class and we have provided relief to this class to the extent possible in the budget.
Muhammad Aurangzeb said that pensions and salaries have to be linked to inflation, and an attempt has been made to provide relief in the same proportion. We have collected more than 400 billion in taxes through enforcement. We have only 2 ways, either to levy taxes or to collect taxes through enforcement, in this regard, there will be a discussion in Parliament for legislation.
The Finance Minister said that the government will give loans to small farmers. The board has been discussed with the board regarding not imposing additional taxes on the agricultural sector.
He said that these figures are of the first year, while the government will increase the tariff cuts in the coming years and the entire system will be reduced by 4%. The government has taken big steps regarding structural reforms and it is yet to take it further.
Muhammad Aurangzeb said in the post-budget press conference that we could have worked only in proportion to the financial capacity and have been able to provide relief to the salaried class to the extent possible. These steps determine the direction of our journey as to where we want to take the salaried class. He said that the higher class and the salaried class have been divided into different slabs.
He said that we started with mid-size corporates. We have started reducing super tax, even if it is 0.5 percent, this is an important signal. We are trying to reduce transaction costs, because the seller still earns profit, but the buyer should get relief. That is why the transaction cost has been kept low for buyers.
The Finance Minister said that similarly, FED (Federal Excise Duty) has also been abolished. It has been talked about reducing transaction costs.
He said that we will not do anything without consulting the provinces. If NFC will be held in October, there will be no change before that. Things are going on with mutual consultation with all the provinces related to expenditure and revenue.
Muhammad Aurangzeb said that when was the last time the salaries of the Speaker and parliamentarians were increased? Salaries were last increased in 2016. If salaries are increased by taking loans, then a balance has to be maintained. Salary was increased in view of the inflation rate. I have never seen anything increase after decreasing in my life.
Chairman FBR Rashid Langrial, while speaking at a press conference, said that two types of economy are running, one of which is the formal retail sector. There was a power bill related to surcharge, which was amended. Reforms need to be made in the power sector, currently no rate is changing.
The Finance Minister further said that when we were talking to international organizations, they were not ready to accept our statement that taxes can be implemented in our country, which is why we had to impose additional taxes last year. He said that there are laws and legislation is being made, taxes are also there, but we were not able to implement them. The amount of taxes implemented this year has exceeded 400 billion.
He added that the rate of GDP compared to taxes this year is 10.3 percent, which will be 10.9 percent next year. He said that out of 22 trillion, additional taxes are only 312 billion rupees and the rest is the aspect of automatic growth and implementation.
He said that we will now go to the legislative stage for which there will be a discussion in the parliament. We will also amend the law to implement taxes, because if we cannot implement taxes, we will have to take additional measures of 4 to 500 billion rupees. We will request the parliament to make legislation and amendments to implement taxes so that the government does not have to take additional measures and the leakage in the system can be eliminated.
