Islamabad - Finance Minister Ishaq Dar on Thursday called upon the top business executives to help the government in promoting tax culture in the country by encouraging individuals in their own rank and others who don’t pay tax to come forward and contribute to the national exchequer.
“The government machinery and institutions on their part would always be making efforts to broaden the tax net, but the business community should also play its due role in pinpointing tax evaders”, he said. Without broadening the tax base, economic prosperity would always remain a dream, Dar remarked during a meeting with leaders of prominent business associations at FBR, exchanging views with them on proposals regarding budget 2015-16. The minister, while welcoming the participants, said he wanted to emphasize the fact before the august gathering of top business professionals that Pakistan had been blessed with all the resources by Almighty Allah. The only need was to work whole-heartedly and dedicatedly for development and prosperity of this country. He said the government had for the last two budgets made it a point to have close interaction with all stakeholders including businessmen, traders, chambers of commerce & industries, business associations and others for preparing the budget which was truly reflective of the aspirations of the people. Finance Minister Dar said that fulfilling the energy needs of the country was a major challenge for the government. We are fully focusing on this matter and by December 2017, we hope to add 10,000MW to the national grid. He said that an amount of Rs. 44 billion had been incurred this year and Rs.136 billion would be spent next year on the anti-terror operation and rehabilitation of TDPs. This was a daunting task but the government was determined to keep up its efforts for good of the people, he said. He asked the chairman FBR to accord due consideration to the proposals and suggestions put forth by leaders of various business houses and associations for the budget 2015-16.
APP adds: Ishaq Dar is scheduled to launch Pakistan’s first ever National Financial Inclusion Strategy (NFIS)’ here on May 22 (Friday). According to a statement of central bank issued on Thursday, the Strategy has been agreed to, at the national level following extensive consultation with stakeholders. It is being championed by State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), with shared leadership from the Ministry of Finance and Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP). Pakistan has developed its first ever National Financial Inclusion Strategy to build momentum and push forward reforms to achieve universal financial inclusion in an integrated and sustained manner. The strategy has created a national vision for universal financial inclusion in Pakistan. A national coordination platform for all stakeholders from both public and private sectors has also been set up for implementation of the reforms and various initiatives for financial inclusion under the strategy.
The NFIS coordination structure envisages three governance bodies, a NFIS Council, NFIS Steering Committee, and various Technical Committees. The NFIS Council is chaired by the Federal Finance Minister to oversee the implementation of NFIS. The Council had its first meeting in April 2015 to adopt the strategy.