Central Board of Revenue Chairman Abdullah Yusuf has appreciated the Sindh government decision for provision of land for industrial parks at cheaper rates, and said that other provinces should follow suit.
He said this at a Pre-Budget seminar, organised by the Institute of Cost and Management Accountants of Pakistan (ICMA) at a hotel here on Saturday.
He admitted that provision of land for setting up industries was a serious issue as it was available at high rates. He said that Sindh government's initiative would be beneficial for industrialisation in the province.
The CBR Chairman said that the inflation rate, which was 11 percent last year, would decline during the current year. In the first eight months of this fiscal year, inflation was 8.4 percent and it was expected to reduce in future.
He said that increase in petroleum prices was the main cause of increase in inflation, while increase in prices of wheat and flour was another reason. He said due to healthy crop this year, food inflation was declining.
Abdullah Yusuf said that CBR had collected Rs 409.2 billion during eight months of the current fiscal year, indicating overall growth of 20 percent over corresponding period of last year. He said that overall collection would further increase when the revenue figures for February 2006 would be finalised in the next few days.
ICMAP President Sher Afgan said that Pakistan's economy was continuing to perform strongly over the last several years, with economic growth accelerating to 8.4 percent in 2004-05--its fastest pace in two decades. The strong economy recovery since 2002-03, accompanied by macroeconomic stability, had been underpinned by prudent macroeconomic policies, wide-ranging structural reforms, fiscal discipline and consistency and continuity in policies, he added.
He said that the major achievements thus far included a strong economic recovery supported by a robust performance in industry, agriculture and service extraordinary strengthening its domestic demand; reduction in fiscal deficit; a high double-digit growth in exports and imports; continuing momentum in workers' remittances; stability in exchange rate; a sharp reduction in the public and external debt burden; privatisation programme moving forward with a brisk pace; and Pakistan re-entering international capital markets with major successes.
He said that notwithstanding these successes, some major challenges also emerged in the shape of a sharp pick up in general price level and widening of trade and current account deficit. These can be described as side-efforts of strong economic recovery, he added.
SITE Association Chairman Ameen Bandukda, Aptma Chairman Mushtaq Vohra, FPCCI Textile and Cotton Committee Chairman Dr Mirza Ikhtiar Baig, Director General Large Taxpayers Unit Bashir Ahmed, LTU Collector Shahzada Tahir Zaman and others also spoke on this occasion.
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