ISLAMABAD: Minister of State for Finance, Revenue and Power Ali Pervaiz Malik said on Sunday that the government chalked out major economic reforms to seek long term stability in the country.

To achieve increased taxation, measures are being adopted to widen the tax net through digitization and data mining, he said while talking to a private news channel.

He said that there are about 4.5 million people who are not paying withholding tax despite owning vehicles, foreign travel, property businesses, and stocks.

“For the first time in history, this data we are mining will estimate their income to bring them into the tax net”, he added.

These initiatives were taken under the prime minister’s vision to replace the borrowing model with a sustainably growing economy, he said.

He further said that the government was also undertaking a right-sizing exercise, eliminating redundant departments, and privatizing state-owned enterprises (SOEs).

The privatization of distribution companies (DISCOS) will begin soon, but before that, the flaws in the “distribution companies’ boards need to be addressed, he added.