ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan has directed the government’s economic team to suggest out-of-box solutions for reducing burden of indirect taxes and to ensure balance between state revenue and expenditure.
Chairing a meeting on steps to bring down prices of essential commodities on Monday, the Prime Minister directed Finance Minister Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh to minutely look into the wheat procurement process and various administrative costs that are contributing towards raising the prices of wheat.
The Prime Minister said his foremost priority is to provide maximum relief to the poor segments of society. He said every effort should be made to lessen the burden of indirect taxes and provide relief to the people.
Discussing wheat and flour prices, the Prime Minister directed that every single penny, being spent in unnecessary administrative expenditures, must be saved. He directed to devise a system to control expenditures, adding that steps should be taken to strengthen the country’s economy.
The meeting discussed various proposals for the provision of targeted subsidies to the vulnerable segments of the society. Steps being taken against inflation, prices of food items, austerity measures, reduction in taxes and OGRA’s recommendations about fuel prices were also discussed in the meeting.
The finance minister apprised the Prime Minister that a comprehensive and efficient plan is being prepared for wheat procurement and rationalisation of administrative costs involved in the process.
SAPM Dr Waqar Masood briefed the Prime Minister about duty structure on imported edible oil and pulses. He also presented a comparative analysis with other regional countries.
Meanwhile, acknowledging the contribution of overseas Pakistanis, Prime Minister Imran Khan has said the country has made its record for remittances above $2 billion for eight straight months.
In a series of tweets on Monday, the Prime Minister said that the remittances are up by 24 percent during the current fiscal year as compared to the last year. He mentioned that remittances from overseas Pakistanis remained $2.27 billion in January, which are 19 percent more than last January. “This is a record for our country and I thank our overseas Pakistanis,” he said in a tweet.
Imran Khan said the industrial sector also showed good results with sustained growth. “Large scale manufacturing saw another double-digit growth month in December 2020 – 11.4% growth vs Dec 2019,” he said. The cumulative growth from July to December was recorded above eight percent, he added.
Meanwhile, Minister for Information and Broadcasting Senator Shibli Faraz said on Monday that increase in foreign remittances is a clear indication that the overseas Pakistanis trust the transparent leadership of Prime Minister Imran Khan.
He stated this in a tweet on social media platform Twitter. He quoted the Prime Minister as saying that remittances from overseas Pakistanis were $ 2.27 billion in January 2021, up by 19 percent over January 2020. It was the 8th consecutive month for remittances to be above $ two billion and this was a record for Pakistan.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Imran is set to visit Karachi on Tuesday (today).
According to details, during the visit, the Prime Minister will attend the ceremony of multinational maritime exercise Aman-2021 in Karachi. He will also meet with Sindh Governor Imran Ismail and PTI Sindh chapter leadership during the day-long visit. Matters pertaining to upcoming Senate elections and other political issues would be discussed in the meeting.
The Prime Minister had given an important task to the governor in view of the Senate polls after he held an in-depth discussion with Imran Ismail over the political developments in Islamabad last month.
It is pertinent to mention here that the PTI has approached its coalition partners in the federal government, MQM-P and PML-F, for a joint strategy against the incumbent Sindh government-led by the PPP- in Senate elections and by-polls.
Sindh Governor Imran Ismail in a statement on February 9 had said that Prime Minister Imran Khan will visit Karachi next week where he will announce a special package for Sindh districts. The governor in a statement had said that the Karachi Transformation Committee (KTC) will brief PM Imran Khan about the development work carried out in the port city under the Karachi package. – TLTP