ISLAMABAD - Prime Minister Imran Khan said Tuesday that the government is devising mechanism to introduce track and trace system to avoid massive tax evasion in major sectors such as sugar, cement, fertilizers and tobacco industry.

Chairing a meeting of the federal cabinet here, he pointed out that the Federal Board of Revenue has been striving to bring this system over the last fifteen years but every time their efforts are sabotaged.

The PM said only two companies are paying taxes in the cigarette industry whilst forty percent cigarettes are being sold in black.

He said the FBR had assured to roll out the track and trace system by July this year but now the Sindh High Court has given a stay on it. He directed the Law Minister to apprise the high court of the actual situation to get the stay vacated as the tax evasion cannot be checked without automation. He noted that due to tax evasion, we have to rely on indirect taxes, which leads to price hike.

On electoral reforms, the Prime Minister said electronic voting machines have become inevitable to ensure transparency in the elections. He said the cabinet should regularly be updated about the progress made towards this end as well as giving the right of franchise to overseas Pakistanis.

Earlier, briefing the media on decisions taken in the cabinet meeting, Federal Minister for Science and Technology Chaudhry Fawad Hussain said forensic audit of 10 loss making entities would be held under the directives of federal cabinet.

Addressing a joint press conference along with Minister for Industries and Production Hammad Azhar here, he said Pakistan Railway, Sui Southern Gas Pipeline Company, Pakistan International Airlines were among the enterprises which were running in loss, adding that the audit would be completed by June 30 this year.

Following the federal cabinet meeting, chaired by Prime Minister Imran Khan, he said 51 out of 85 loss-making state owned enterprises have become profitable due to the prudent policies of the government.

He said Prime Minister Imran Khan has been personally monitoring the prices of daily use commodities and all possible steps were being taken to provide relief to the common man.

Fawad Chaudhry said when Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTI) came to power, the economy was in a shambles but the government had taken all possible steps to protect the poor segments of the society from the effects of inflation and price hike.

He said good news was that Utility Stores Corporation was ruined during the previous regimes but due to the efforts of the present government, it would come out of loss by the end of the year.

The minister said the cabinet expressed its concern over the increasing incidents of the corona virus and expressed the hope that Pakistan would also handle the third phase the way it had handled the first two phases.

He said the pandemic had played havoc with the health systems and economies of many developed countries but Pakistan due to the timely action and effective policies was successful in saving the lives and livelihood of the people.

Chaudhry Fawad said at the start of the meeting the Prime Minister highlighted the issue of transparency in the electoral system. PTI had two important points in its manifesto which included accountability and transparency in elections.

The prime minister directed for introduction of electronic voting system and also focused that every week the cabinet should be apprised of the process of introduction of electronic voting machines.

He said there were some political forces which would always dispute the election process but the government wanted to ensure transparency for the satisfaction of the general public.

He said the cabinet gave approval to the proposal of appointment of Raja Mazhar as Managing Director of National Book Foundation. The cabinet also gave approval to end the ban on issuance of prohibited and non-prohibited bore licenses of arms by approving the comprehensive license policy.

He said the cabinet also discussed the issue of improper use of petroleum companies CSR. Now rules have been changed and Minister for Petroleum has been authorized to monitor the entire process of CSR utilization.

He said the cabinet gave approval to the proposal of issuing smart cards to registered Afghan refugees and this decision was part of the prime minister’s policy of providing relief to the poor people.

The cabinet was informed that this year 400,000 new gas connections have been given whereas the target was 600,000 by the end of the current fiscal year.

The next year the target would be issuing 1.2 million new gas connections. He said so far only 27 per cent residents had been provided piped gas facility whereas 67 per cent were still without this important facility.

He said the cabinet also briefed on structural reforms and it was decided that in future latest audit paragraphs would come up before the public accounts committee to promote the timely process of parliamentary supervision and accountability.

The Minister for Science and Technology said tax exemption was granted on auto-disable syringes to prevent spread of various diseases.

Responding to a question, Fawad said the Ministry of Interior had been directed to formulate a comprehensive policy regarding arms licenses within a few weeks.

To another question, the minister said some 66 oil marketing companies existed in the country. About 92 percent oil was being supplied by only eight oil companies.

He deplored that the national institutions like the Pakistan International Airlines, Pakistan Television and petroleum sector departments were ruined during the previous governments.

Replying to a query, the minister termed the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) a group of “political orphans”.

About the demand for resignations of Chief Election Commissioner and ECP members, the minister said Article 218 (3) of the Constitution clearly stated that the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) was responsible to conduct free, fair and transparent elections with no corrupt practices.

All the political parties had the consensus that the ECP had failed to fulfil its responsibilities in that regard, he added.

The Supreme Court, he said, had advised the ECP to use technology for ensuring transparent elections, with no corrupt practices, but it failed to do so.

Being a political party, the PTI, he said, had only conveyed the people’s demand to the ECP high-ups to tender resignations and give an opportunity to the Parliament to form a new Commission.

He said the ECP could only be credible if all the political parties had faith in it.

“A disputed ECP cannot take the matters forward.”

He warned the CEC and ECP members of using all legal options, including the contempt of court, if they did not resign from their posts.

The federal cabinet has approved Ramadan Relief Package worth 7.8 billion rupees on 19 essential items to facilitate the common people during the holy month through the network of Utility Stores across Pakistan.

Minister for Industries and Production Hammad Azhar said earlier this subsidy was available on five items only.

He said sale of the Utility Stores Corporation is likely to reach 100 billion rupees this year and it is expected that USC will earn some profit as well.

Hammad Azhar said the cabinet has also approved to run two urea small plants of private sectors from this month to meet requirements of the farmers. He said large scale manufacturing showed a growth of 9.1 percent in January this year.

He said the cabinet also validated decisions of the Institutional Reforms Committee and Prime Minister Imran Khan directed to expedite the reforms process. He said the cabinet gave ex-post facto to 17 platoons of Gilgit-Baltistan Scouts for security duty.

The Minister for Science and Technology said that accountability and transparency in elections are the two pillars of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s politics for which Prime Minister Imran Khan directed that federal cabinet be briefed on weekly-basis in electronic voting machines to make the polling process credible and transparent.

Fawad said the cases of Shibli Faraz and Faisal Vawda are under process after electing as Senators and they will hold their portfolios soon.