Thursday, 17 February, 2022 I 15 Rajab, 1443 I Rs 15.00 I Vol XII No 230 I 12 Pages I Karachi Edition
Tarin hinTs aT fresh Talks wiTh iMf regarding personal incoMe Tax g
SayS relief package for Salaried callS on the cardS
islamabad
f
shahzad paracha
inance Minister Shaukat tarin has hinted at holding fresh negotiations with the iMf on personal income tax (pit). he was answering the queries with regard to the iMf conditions especially to implement draft pit legislation by the end-february 2022. the minister said that it is not true that the government agrees with all the demands of the iMf. “the government will not withdraw all things under the pit without further negotiations with the iMf”, he added. Shaukat tarin also said our team will inform the iMf that the revenues are increasing and the overall revenue position is stronger.
earlier, the finance minister while addressing the audience on the occasion of the second computerized poS prize said that the government would have to substantially raise the tax to gdp ratio up to 20 per cent in order to achieve over 6 per cent growth. pakistan cannot achieve long-term growth with an existing low level of tax to gdp ratio of 10 per cent. pakistan has failed to achieve long term sustained growth due to three major reasons including low savings rate, gap between exports and imports and low agriculture productivity, he said. in addition the government would take action against those retailers who deducted general Sales tax (gSt) from customers but not deposit the deducted
amount into the national kitty. the finance minister also said that only 2 million out of 220 million population are taxpayers. he said that there should be only two major taxes including income tax and gSt. there is no short cut and there is a need to abolish other taxes like withholding tax and full and final taxes. RElIEF PacKagE FOR mIddlE, salaRIEd class ON caRds: TaRIN: Minister for finance and revenue Shaukat tarin has said that the government will announce a relief package for the middle, lower-middle and salaried class within 15 days to help them cope with skyrocketing inflation. while addressing the launching ceremony of ‘raast digital payment System,’ on tuesday, the finance minister said that the government is fully aware of the problems being faced by the middle, lower-middle and salaried class due to inflation and wants to ease them. talking about digitisation, the federal minister said that the government with public-private coordination is ready to introduce digitalisation of transactions to pace up the e-commerce drive in the country. “i consulted with all stakeholders including the relevant players of the e-commerce industry and also got feedback from freelancers to resolve the issues faced by the e-commerce sector including the money channel and provide them with a banking channel to ease their e-trading,” the minister said.” he said that after the implementation of digitisation through ‘raast digital payment System’ the country’s exports in information technology and e-commerce would increase. in addition the raast system would improve overall efficiency that would reduce cash circulation and resultantly improve deposits held by the banks and ultimately would lead to increase saving rates from current 15 per cent to 28-30 per cent. Moreover, he said that commonly the cash settlements were being made through cheques, which is time-taking, but with the help of raast digital payment system, the transfers can be made within seconds now.
Opposition rejects petrol prices hike, calls it a ‘robbery’ g
Shehbaz Sharif, bilawal urge people to teach pM khan a leSSon in next electionS islamabad staff report
the leaders of opposition parties on wednesday rejected the recent hike in the prices of petroleum products and urged people at large to teach a lesson to prime Minister imran khan in next polls. on tuesday, the government had notified an unprecedented increase in the prices of all petroleum products by up to rs10 to rs12 per litre for the next fortnight ending on february 28 “to pass on the impact of higher international oil prices” and application of additional petroleum levy, as committed to the international Monetary fund (iMf). pakistan people’s party (ppp) chairman bilawal bhutto zardari, while rejecting the increase in prices of petroleum products, said that after inflation, unemployment, poverty, increase in dollar and corruption, prime Minister imran khan has reached record levels in increasing oil prices.
in a statement, the ppp chairman said that the increase in prices of petroleum products is a robbery on the pockets of the people and pakistan will not accept it. he further said that imran khan has intensified the bombardment of inflation on the people. bilawal said that cng stations have already been closed for three months, and now an increase in oil prices will further raise inflation and food prices. he said that the increase in oil prices by the selected government is as big as a mountain, but there is never even a slight decrease in the prices. he said when the prices in the world market go up, the price of oil in pakistan goes up, but when the prices go down in the world, they remain the same in pakistan. Separately, bilawal also demanded the restoration of student unions across the country after Sindh passed a bill to restore the bodies.
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