ISLAMABAD: Caretaker Finance Minister Shamshad Akhtar has held her first meeting on power sector after assuming the charge and visited Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) to review progress so far on implementation of $3 billion Stand-by-Arrangement (SBA) of the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

According to the staff report prepared by the IMF staff mission on the SBA for the Fund Executive Board’s, the first of review of the SBA is scheduled for end September 2023 and the visit of the caretaker finance minister to FBR and the meeting on the power sector is being seen in this context.

On condition of anonymity the official added that power sector is a major challenge for the caretaker government, as for all previous governments, due to power theft and non-recovery of billed amount.

Shamshad for innovative approach to documenting untaxed sectors

The official added that this was the precise reason that former Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif set up a committee with the direction to finalise an action plan with regard to handing over power distribution companies (Discos), operating under their jurisdictions, to the provinces.

The federal government is optimistic that handing over Discos to the provinces will help reduce power theft and improve recovery of billed amount, the official added.

Shamshad Akhtar during her visit to the FBR is said to have underlined the importance to increase the tax-to-GDP ratio. She reportedly expressed the desire to bring new tax payers into the tax net instead of putting further burden or squeezing existing tax payers, an exhortation made by all previous finance ministers but to no avail.

According to the official, she stated that out-of-the-box methods should be taken to bring the untaxed sectors into the net.

When contacted, sources in the finance ministry said that the caretaker finance minister has given explicit instructions that she does not want to interact with the media at this point in time.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023