Federal Minister for Finance Muhammad Aurangzeb on Sunday said that the value of the Pak Rupee had improved considerably and inflation was declining, reported 24NewsHD TV channel.  

Addressing a pre-budget seminar in Lahore, the minister said the government had now figured out in which direction it was to head as far as the economy was concerned.  

He said that if the country was to come out of the economic crisis, the private sector would have to play its part.

“The country’s foreign exchange reserves have crossed the $9 billion mark,” he claimed.

Aurangzeb said that now even the salaried class had been brought into the tax net, adding the government now planned to tax traders as well.

He appealed to the traders who still do not pay taxes to now voluntarily start paying taxes.  

He stressed the need for implementing the laws that dealt with tax collection. “We will provide all kinds of facilities. But there is zero tolerance as far as tax collection is concerned.”

He, however, admitted that the FBR’s ‘track and trace system’ was a ‘flop’.

“The government plans to generate Rs94 trillion in revenues,” the minister informed.

“A team of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has reached Pakistan and soon negotiations between the government and the Fund for a loan programme will get underway,” he added.

Aurangzeb expressed the government’s resolve to document the country’s economy.

He went on to say that if Pakistan was to progress, the privatization of loss-making entities was a must.

He said that Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar too had chaired a meeting on privatization. “As far as privatization is concerned, we are on the same page,” he said, adding, “The government will take not only foreign investors but also local investors into confidence on privatization.”

The minister was of the view that there was a need to reduce interest rate on industries, since at the present rate, there could be no growth in the industrial sector.  

Aurangzeb informed the country was now heading for ‘digitalization’. “And the less there is human interference in financial matters, the more there will be transparency,” he said.

He said that Pakistan must look at the Bangladesh model of economic growth and see the contributions made by women to their country’s development.