ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan Tuesday has said commodity prices have increased all over the world and Pakistan also imported inflation which hurt its people badly, but asked what the government could do in the circumstances.
Addressing the inaugural session of the 14th International Chambers, he said inflation had reached an all-time high in the world, which hurt people badly, even in the US and Europe, after the onset of COVID-19.
He said he was trying to change the system in the country, considering the effort against corruption as jihad, for his goal was not only to be the prime minister.
“My mission is to take the country forward,” he added. “I want supremacy and rule of law in the country,” he emphasised. He said inflation is not only in Pakistan but in the whole world and prices in Pakistan are still the cheapest in the region. He said a meeting with businessmen has been proposed every week and remarked: “This proposal is good. I myself have attended several meetings of Special Economic Zones. It has been decided to lease land for hiring and industrial purposes.”
He regretted that the mafias of corruption are sitting and a country is called a banana republic where there is one law for the strong and another law for the weak. There are mafias which do not want to come under the law. He contended that it takes time to establish the rule of law, the state of Madina was the best model in the history of the world, “we have to establish the rule of law in the country, this is the future war of Pakistan and this war everyone has to fight and win”.
He pointed out that no government has faced such problems in the past as the PTI government has faced. “When the government took over, we did not have money. The country was on the verge of bankruptcy. We would have gone bankrupt but Saudi Arabia, UAE and China helped us in difficult times,” he noted and added that inflation is not only in Pakistan but in the whole world.
“We realise that people are worried, there is imported inflation in our country, dollar rate has gone up due to smuggling of dollar to Afghanistan, still Pakistan is a cheap country, US President Joe Biden has also been criticised by Donald Trump on inflation in the country.”
He said: “During our tenure, the country's exports increased. I had said that after coming into power, I would collect Rs8,000 billion in taxes. Last year, there was a record increase in tax collection. We want to introduce tax culture in the country.
Tax collection is very important, we pay the lowest taxes in the world, everyone is responsible for it, our FBR system is also responsible for it. Business people and the public are not aware of taxes either. There is development in European countries due to higher tax rates. We are not accustomed to paying taxes since the British era. One of the reasons is that in the past, the rulers did not spend people's tax money on them,” he said.
The prime minister said: “We are documenting the economy, reforming our tax collection system, bringing automation in the system, which will minimise confrontation between taxpayers and tax collectors. The money was not spent on them, in the past people did not trust the FBR.” He said exports and taxes are very important for the future of Pakistan, the establishment of industries is important for the development of the country, the government wants business people to make money. When the corporate sector makes a profit, the country prospers.
He noted that a pandemic like corona comes once in a century, that crisis came during the PTI government, but with a good strategy, the government fought corona. “The situation in the country would have worsened if the downfall had taken place. I was criticised for not imposing the lockdown, but I thought of poor people and faced difficult situations with a better strategy,” he said, adding that there are many difficulties in the country in terms of exports, no effort has been made in the past to increase exports. “We should focus on exports as only by increasing exports, the country can be brought on the path to development. Yes, the country cannot develop without the growth of exports.”
He said the future of the country depends on IT. “During our tenure, the exports of the IT sector have increased by 70%. The exports of the IT sector will increase further,” he said, adding that rich countries have never introduced a universal health coverage system, it is not a health card but the whole system of health facilities. He said that up to Rs1 million free treatment can be provided through health insurance. Every family in all the provinces except Sindh has a health insurance.
