Govt believes in broadening tax  net, not increasing rate: minister

LAHORE

Punjab Finance Minister Dr Ayesha Ghaus Pasha has said allocating resources in head of ‘block allocations’ in the budget is not an encouraging trend for development, but provincial governments are dependent on the resources received from the federal government and make budget with this provision.

“We have discouraged this trend and reduced the percentage of block allocations in the previous budget which will further decline in forthcoming budget after getting some provincial financial autonomy after the 18th Amendment of the Constitution which enables the provinces to collect GST on services by themselves”, she said while addressing a budget training session organised by the Lahore Economic Journalist Association (LEJA) in collaboration with the Lahore Press Club on Tuesday.

During the last ten months of the ongoing fiscal year, 35 percent revenue growth is witnessed by the Punjab Revenue Authority on GST on services collected from the 59 services in the province. Numbers of registered taxpayers have also doubled reaching about 22,000 during the same period, Dr Ayesha Ghaus Pasha said.

The minister pointed out when the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) collected GST on services, it netted only 5 to 7 services while the provincial government broadened the tax net by including 59 services. She hinted that more services will add in the GST which is not in the tax net. “The Punjab government believes in broadening the tax net by adding untaxed, under-tax, and those evading the taxes rather increasing the tax rate which is injustice with the existing taxpayers”, she said. 

The minister said the Punjab government has focused on broadening the tax base by revamping the tax administration, automating it, easing the tax payment system and creating tax awareness among the masses so that they will proudly pay taxes. 

Talking about the government priorities in the forthcoming budget, she said health, education, clean drinking water (saaf paani), agriculture and infrastructure development are the key areas in the budget. 

To a question that the Punjab government is being criticised for infrastructure focused spending at the cost of the services and social sector, she said now in the changing era of politics only those survive who ensure service delivery. So the government is parallel spending on each sector, she said, adding infrastructure development was compromised during the last decade which is hampering the growth. To attain the growth targets, infrastructure development is also crucial, she said. 

“In fact infrastructure is required for the local and foreign investment and according to independent research 2 percent of GDP growth is affected alone due to power shortages in Pakistan”, she said, explaining the government has invested in solar power generation to attract private sector. Now the Punjab government is working on other renewable energy generation projects including wind. Other than this, the RLNG and coal power projects are also underway, she said. She believed when a government makes some investments then private sector invests.

The solar is success story in this regard as the government installs only 100 megawatt solar power Generation Park while the private sector is now tapping remaining 900 mega watt solar power generation potential, she added.

Talking about the local and foreign Direct Investment in Punjab, Dr Ayesha Ghaus Pasha said the government is moving on fast track on FDI as a number of MoUs reach agreement stages while many are in development phase. The CM is looking the matters of FDI and focusing on ease of doing business, she said. 

minorities: Punjab Minister for Minorities Affairs and Human Rights Khalil Tahir Sandhu has said that a substantial amount is being earmarked in the upcoming budget for the welfare and betterment of minorities.

Talking to MPAs in Punjab Assembly, the minister said Rs 463 million were allocated in the Annual Development Programme of 2015-16 and a mass media human rights campaign was successfully launched with utilisation of allocated amount of Rs 15 million in 2015-16.  A new scheme has also been proposed in development budget of 2016-17 to sensitise public servants about human rights conventions through training and seminars, concluded the minister.