Government pinning high hopes on exporters: Dar says it''''''''s growth-oriented budget

Finance Minister Senator Ishaq Dar on Saturday acknowledged that new tax measures announced in the federal budget 2016-17 would affect the general public. Addressing the traditional post-budget press conference, Dar said the government has increased tax on mobile sets to counter mis-declaration of costlier phones. Dar claimed that zero-rating in sales tax and other relief for exports are aimed at achieving the objective of a 25 percent increase in exports in 2016-17.
Finance Minister said "exporters (textile sector) said to us ''''''''if you give us these facilities, we will give you 25 percent increase in exports''''''''. We want to increase exports to $35 billion to reduce country''''''''s dependency on foreign inflows." He added that the country''''''''s current account deficit will be in surplus if exports are increased to $35 billion.
The minister said the government has withdrawn Rs 226 billion exemptions during the last two years and another Rs 99 billion would be withdrawn in the next fiscal year. Dar expressed optimism that the next fiscal year''''''''s budget would create employment opportunities as it is growth oriented. He said that interventions in the budget for agriculture sector would start giving positive results from next fiscal year and cotton production would increase from 13 million bales to 20 million bales.
The government has made a significant reduction in price of fertilizers, which were brought down by Rs 250 per bag during the last few months and are being further reduced by Rs 400. He said prices of DAP would also be reduced by Rs 300 per bag with effect from next month. The Finance Minister said 7 per cent duty on pesticides has been withdrawn while off-peak rate of electricity for agricultural tube wells has been lowered from Rs 8.85 a unit to Rs 5.35 a unit.
Ishaq Dar said: "another area of concern for the government is falling exports and the government has taken measures to address the factors contributing to the low exports and brought five major exports sectors under the zero-rated regime." The Minister said the government will further increase industrial growth as duty has been reduced on import of machinery and raw material to 3 percent, which is the lowest slab in the country. Similarly, more credit is being made available to the private sector.
The Minister said the government has taken every possible step towards increasing the cost for non-filers with a view to compelling them to join the taxation system. The government has put additional burden of taxes on non filers. He said except for genuinely needed SROs, others have been withdrawn with a cumulative impact of 400 billion rupees. While referring to Rs 1675 billion consolidated budget, he maintained that this would generate economic activity and employment opportunities.
The Finance Minister said that the government is making an effort to keep inflation to a single digit and alleviate poverty. He said allocations for BISP have been increased to bring more families under its coverage. He said despite constraints defence allocations have been increased. The Zarb-e-Azb is moving towards its final round and its successful conclusion would help attract foreign direct investment. He said the country suffered huge losses of $118 billion during the war on terror.
The Minister said the federal government employees have been given a 10 percent increase in salary as ad hoc relief and two previous ad hoc reliefs allowed to them have been merged in basic pay which would bring the cumulative impact in increase in their salaries from 13 to 13.5 percent. He said the government would be bearing the expenditure of Rs 57 billion on account of increase in salaries and pensions. Of this, an expenditure of 12 billion rupees would be spent on welfare of low grade employees, including up-gradation of their scales and increase in their allowances.
To a question, he said the government is according priority to the construction of Western Route of China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) as per understanding with political leadership. He said Lahore-Karachi Motorway was a missing link in Prime Minister''''''''s vision of Motorways for the country. As no one was ready to undertake this project of 300 billion rupee on BOT basis, this has been included in CPEC, he confirmed. The Finance Minister said that Pakistan tax authorities would hold a meeting with Swiss authorities on June 23-24 in Berlin to discuss the modalities of sharing of information of Pakistanis maintaining Swiss bank accounts.