Homegrown structural reforms on cards

ISLAMABAD: The new Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf government is about to introduce structural reforms to ramp up tax revenue and investment in the country as it is struggling to bring the economy back on growth track.

Minister for Planning, Development and Reform Khusro Bakhtyar on Tuesday said the government is working on a robust economic plan to introduce structural economic reforms to bring Pakistan among the middle income countries in the long term.

“Improving tax administration, encouraging financial institutions to expand the range of savings and investment instruments, reducing the procedures, cost and time associated with investing, improving management practices and supporting technology extensions would bring about economic turnaround for the country,” Bakhtyar said at a meeting with the World Bank’s Country Director Patchamuthu Illangovan.

Illangovan along with a delegation called on the minister, an official statement said. The planning minister underscored an ‘immediate’ need to enhance the tax revenues to 20 percent of GDP and simultaneously increase the domestic savings rate to 20 percent of GDP. The minister said the government offers friendly-investment policies. “Pakistan is emerging as one of the attractive destinations for foreign investment,” he said. “Efforts are underway to improve governance with a particular focus on e-governance in order to enhance productivity.”

The minister underlined the need to streamline the PC-1 preparation process for efficient planning and designing of projects.

Secretary Planning Zafar Hasan, Member Infrastructure Malik Ahmed Khan, Project Director China-Pakistan Economic Corridor Hassan Daud Butt and senior officials of the ministry were also present during the meeting. Meanwhile, planning minister Bakhtyar told a delegation from Balochistan that the government adopted a holistic policy towards the province to bring it at par with other areas of the country. The minister said the federal government is considering launching a project to provide electricity and construct dams in collaboration with the provincial government to provide clean drinking water to the people of Balochistan as well as enhance financial allocation as part of its Quetta package. “The incumbent government is focusing on providing electricity and clean drinking water and is committed to bring socioeconomic development in the province for uplift of the people of the area,” the minister said. A feasibility study would soon be conducted for the purpose of constructing a dam in the province. He also emphasised the need to conserve water.

The minister directed the concerned officials to prepare a master plan to meet water needs of Quetta city.

The planning minister said a desalination plant with a capacity of five million gallons per day is being built to meet water requirements of the people of Gwadar. The minister said previous governments did not pay much attention on development of the largest province of the country in terms of area.

The present government has prioritised development of Balochistan to improve lives of the local people as well as tap its potential to contribute to national progress of the country.