Finance Minister Dr Miftah Ismail has said that if the government fails to curtail trade deficit the country will have to resort to the International Monetary Fund for financial assistance. He was addressing a post-budget seminar organized by the Southern Regional Committee of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Pakistan (ICAP) at a local hotel Monday night. ICAP President Riaz A Rehman Chamdia and Fiscal Laws Committee ICAP Chairman Ashfaq Tola also spoke on the occasion.
Dr Miftah said whatever measures incumbent government has taken there would be no need to resort to IMF program. "I am leaving the goods in order by May and if the next government (caretaker) keeps the things as normal by June we will not be required to go to the IMF." "What the IMF wants us to do if we do that then there would be no need for the program. We need to correct our financial affairs before the IMF extortion by increasing exports and reducing imports," he emphasized.
He said the budget presented by his government was appreciated by all and whatever anomalies are there would be fixed within two weeks. The government has reduced tax rates and now everybody will have to come into tax net, he added. Only 1.2 million of the total population of 200 million people pay tax. "Salaried class has been provided with tax relief in the budget which would reduce the government revenue but it will have long term impacts as more people will opt to come into tax net," Ismail maintained.
The FBR will collect Rs 3,935 billion tax revenue by the end of current fiscal year. "We have more than doubled the tax collection during last five years. For the next year, we have set Rs 4.45 trillion revenue collection target," he said. "We are targeting the inflation rate to be 6 percent for the next year and GDP rate of 6.15 percent, and nominal GDP is expected to be around 12.25 percent. The government expects 11 percent revenue growth," he said.
He stressed the need for increasing growth rate to 8-10 percent to alleviate poverty from the country and create job opportunities as the other now developed countries did. For export package, a committee will be notified within couple of days, he said. ICAP President Riaz A Rehman Chamdia hailed the federal government budget and hoped that this will help businesses grow further. ICAP is striving for better financial management of institutions to play their role in economic growth.
Earlier, in his presentation, Fiscal Laws Committee ICAP Chairman Ashfaq Tola said there are a few anomalies left in budget that needs to be corrected. ICAP is doing its best and we have held marathon sessions with the FBR and submitted our proposals. Alhamdolillah they have accepted many of them, he added. A session with tax experts was moderated by Partner Shekha & Mufti Chartered Accountants Adnan Mufti. Panelists included Senior Partner A F Ferguson & Co S M Shabbar Zaidi, Ashfaq Tola, Partner & Head of Tax KPMG Taseer Hadi & Co Saqib Masood and Partner EY Ford Rhodes Haider A Patel.
A session with business experts was moderated by TV anchor Sidra Iqbal. It was participated by Senior Partner Deloitte Yousuf Adil Asad Ali Shah, Chief Executive Officer Pakistan Business Council Ehsan Malik, Senior Economist Dr Asad Sayeed and Chief Executive Officer Gul Ahmed Textile Mills Limited Mohammad Zaki Bashir.