Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani has asked his advisor on Finance to apprise him on weekly basis about the economic situation and directed Tarin to streamline the revenue collection system and devise a mechanism to broaden the tax-base for meeting the revenue targets.
Advisor to Prime Minister on Finance Shaukat Tarin, who called on Prime Minister to brief him about the current status of the economy, was tasked to personally supervise the revamping of revenue collection system for achieving the desired objectives.
Tarin told the Prime Minister that recent political turmoil had negatively impacted the revenue collection but the exact loss could only be ascertained by the end the month. Meanwhile, a statement said that Gilani expressed satisfaction over the overall economic situation as all economic indicators have started showing positive trends due to governments timely intervention and introduction of corrective measures.
Briefing the Prime Minister on the economic situation of the country, Tarin said that Pakistan would receive IMF second tranche of $840 million as per schedule as the country is well ahead in achieving the targets set for the said quarter.
He said that due to stringent economic measures current account has also improved significantly and a deficit of $2.2 Billion recorded previously is now reflecting surplus of $117 million at present.
Talking about the market indicators, Tarin briefed the Prime Minister that market interest rate has decreased from 15.85 per cent to 12.44 per cent. Similarly the Stock exchange of the country is also performing positively and has registered an increase in the trading volume by 29 per cent thus placing itself as one of the best performing stock exchanges of the world, the Advisor added.
Apprising the Prime Minister of the situation of inflation in the country, the Advisor said that the inflation would be brought down to single digit from 25 per cent in a year. Tarin also briefed the Prime Minster that agreement was reached with the banks on the status of circular debt. Tarin would brief the Prime Minister on the countrys economic situation on weekly basis.