Senate Standing Committee on Finance, Revenue and Privatisation here on Friday met with a visiting delegation of International Monetary Fund. Chairman Standing Committee on Finance and Revenue led the committee members while Herald Finger was heading the IMF delegation, said a press release issued here Friday. Both sides discussed the IMF-Pakistan relationship and the on-going bailout programme of US $6.6 billion under the Extended Fund Facility (EFF).
They also discussed the Privatisation programme and the important legislation done by the standing committee on Finance and Revenue. During meeting members of Committee questioned about up-coming privatisation of Pakistan International Airline, Pakistan Steel Mills, FESCO and State Life Insurance Company. Chairman Standing Committee on Finance and Revenue, Senator Saleem Mandviwalla briefed the IMF delegation about the role of Standing Committee and its achievements.
He informed the delegation that the committee has recently approved Anti Money Laundering Bill. The committee hold threadbare discussions on the bill and members gave its valuable in-put to make the bill more relevant. The committee has also approved the State Bank Amendment Act and Credit Bureau Bill in a less than one year's span of time, he added. He said that Pakistan's foreign reserve are stable, which can be further strengthen by increasing its exports and tax net revenues.
Mandviwalla was of the view that decreasing trends in the international oil prices were a golden opportunities for Pakistan. "Pakistan can use the opportunity to increase its exports which will improve foreign reserves. It will help Pakistan to repay loans," he remarked. He said that Pakistan can also increase its revenue by widening the tax net. FBR can use the tax data of 0.7 million available with NADRA to widen the net.
Expansion in tax net will further boost foreign reserves of the country to ease the loan repayments. Senator Mohisn Laghari, Senator Ilyas Ahmed Bilour, Senator Kamil Ali Agha and Senator Mohsin Aziz were also present during the meeting with the IMF delegation.
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