Govt measures helped cut inflation by 26 per cent, reveals finance minister

Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb has said that the rate of inflation has come down from 38 to 12 per cent, which means a 26 per cent reduction in inflation.

While talking to the media in Islamabad, he said that economic stability is coming in the country as there has been a significant improvement in the economy due to the government’s initiatives. Before going into the new fiscal year, we were trying to clear all the backlog, he added.

He said that Pakistan’s foreign exchange is $9 billion and the World Bank has approved $1 billion for the Dasu project, adding the confidence of foreign institutions has restored due to economic stability.

The finance minister said that FBR will achieve the tax target of Rs9300 billion and tax to GDP is being taken to 12 per cent in 3 years. He added that reforms will be made in energy and petroleum sectors and improvement of the economy will be a sustainable. FBR reforms are necessary and tax evasion has to be stopped, he added.

The finance minister further said that both FBR officials and tax payers are involved in the theft. If the procedure of tax collection is made easier then they can move forward. I am grateful to FPCCI for suggesting easier procedure, Aurangzeb said.

He said that Miftah Ismail had said that tax should be imposed on retailers in 2022 and it should have been started. 22,000 retailers were registered and they are going to be taxed from July. It cannot be happened that non-files are left out of the tax scheme. If I am a non-filer, so I must think that I should file tax, the minister said.