Some opposition parties doing politics for petty gains; number of planes to be increased from 40 to 80; potential investors to be found in a transparent manner; opposition parties invited to open bidding offer to make the whole process more transparent
ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Finance Ishaq Dar on Saturday asked the opposition parties to shun petty politics and offered to sit down and evolve a consensus on privatisation, fixation of petroleum prices and the imposition of taxes under the Charter of Economy.
Addressing a news conference here at the FBR’s headquarters, he said if any province, especially KP, was ready then its share of taxes collected on petroleum products could be distributed among the masses.
The imposed taxes on POL products became part of the Federal Divisible Pool (FDP) under the NFC Award and 62 to 63 percent shares will to provinces and first of all 1 percent share of KP on account of the war on terror is being provided to them.
“I request the opposition parties to separate politics from the national economy.
“We will not be blackmailed but we request them not to plunge into ‘mean’ politics on issues related to finding out strategic partners for PIA and other economic issues. There is need of a rational approach on economic issues,” he pleaded.
Flanked by Special Assistant to the PM on Revenues Haroon Akhtar, Chairman FBR Nisar Khan and others, Dar formally launched the Voluntary Tax Compliance Scheme (VTCS) which would lure non-filers to come into the tax net.
“The carrot and stick policy has delivered, as 0.6 percent Withholding Tax on banking transactions helped the government to bring traders to evolve a consensus on this scheme,” he added.
On PIA privatisation, he said some elements had misled the PIA employees by spreading propaganda that 8,000 employees would be sacked.
“Some opposition parties are doing politics for petty gains but the government will come up with an improvement plan to increase airplanes from 40 to 60 and then to 80 and then potential investors will be found in a transparent manner to make it a viable entity.
Dar said he had offered the opposition parties to open the bidding offer of a potential buyer for PIA in their presence to make the whole process more transparent.
To another query about shelving the plan for privatizing power distribution companies under the IMF programme, the minister said they had not accepted the Fund’s demand for hiking the gas and electricity tariff.
On privatisation of Discos, he said the reform process would be aimed at bringing an improvement but he did not offer direct comments on stopping the privatisation of power distribution companies.
Answering a query about the holding of the next population census, the minister said he had directed the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) to come up with deployment related commitment from the law enforcement agencies (LEA) for ascertaining the exact requirement of troops in writing for holding the next population census.
“Technically, I cannot comment on the total required troops for holding a census so it requires their assessment. When the government receives their commitment about the deployment plan then the decision will be taken to assess whether it is doable or not,” he added.
He said the army was heavily engaged in Zarb-e-Azb and it was not possible for him to technically make an exact assessment for sparing troops for holding the census.
Asked about the army’s commitment for providing only 100,000 personnel, he said he needed a commitment in writing so that the decision could be taken on it.
He said the Pakistan Steel Mills (PSM) had not improved its performance and owed over Rs30 billion as an outstanding amount of gas utility so he could not support the resumption of gas supply keeping in view the massive deficit of the PSM.
He praised the FBR for surpassing the desired tax collection target for the second quarter (Oct-Dec) period of the current fiscal year as the collection has touched Rs785 billion against the envisaged target of Rs750 billion.
The tax collection went up to Rs1,385 billion in July-Dec period of 2015-16 against the set target of Rs1,390 billion so the FBR made up deficit of Rs35 billion in just one month which was supposed to be bridged in seven months.
The FBR, he said, achieved a growth of 18.2 percent in the first six months but the growth increased to 20 percent in January 2016.
Inflation will remain below 4 percent in the current fiscal year, he said and added that the country was expected to cross GDP growth of 5 percent in fiscal 2015-16.
On public debt, he said public debt had increased by Rs3,880 billion in the last three years as it stood at Rs14,400 billion on September 30, 2013 which jumped up to Rs18,224 billion on November 30, 2015.
The external debt went up by $3.2 billion as it stood at $48.13 billion in 2013 which increased to $51.3 billion.
“We did not build up reserves with the IMF money as net inflows stand at just $850 million under the existing program,” he added.
He said the social safety net programme funding increased by three times bringing it up from Rs40 billion to Rs105 billion and doubling the development spending.
Sharing comparison of POL prices, he said the average gasoline price at the global level stood at $1.1 while in Pakistan its price stood at $73 cents while average price of diesel globally stood at $1.5 while in Pakistan its price was $79 cents per liter.
