Tag: TARIFFS

  • ‘Will not increase electricity tariffs, told IMF,’ says Tarin

    ‘Will not increase electricity tariffs, told IMF,’ says Tarin

    The Federal Minister for Finance Shaukat Tarin predicted that the economy of Pakistan would grow by six per cent as the incumbent government has dealt with COVID-19 in a better way.

    “Growth rate is projected at five percent this year and would move further upwards to six percent during the next fiscal year. The government has developed short and long-term plans to achieve the target,” Tarin said while addressing a virtual press conference.

    “The government of Pakistan is doing long-term planning not just to stabilise the economy but to push economic growth,” he added.

    The strategy is divided into short, medium, and long-term planning for almost 12 sectors, and the plan will be presented to Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan for approval by the end of May. Shaukat Tarin made these strategies after taking over again as finance minister.

    In addition, Pakistan is going through food scarcity and has to import from outside. Tarin blamed the lack of agriculture industry behind food shortage.

    By paying attention and taking action against people who are profiting and hoarding food, these issues are addressable. “We will tackle this through the creation of strategic reserves and dump food wherever people try to profit,” Tarin said.

    On the financial sector, he said that we will bring more people into the tax net. Besides, people should be encouraged to deposit money into banks so it could be used productively, and the money can be spent on all provinces rather than “nine cities”.

    While responding to a question about power tariffs, he said the government would not increase tariffs to prevent further burden on the people, and the same would follow for taxes.

    He said the International Monetary Fund (IMF) had been told that money would instead be collected through other “innovative ways” and he had “full hope” that the IMF would give space.

    He also explained that Pakistan had fulfilled most of the Financial Action Task Force’s conditions with one or two “transactional items” left so he said the government was hopeful of a favourable response in the meeting in June.

  • ‘Govt to renegotiate programme with IMF’: Finance Minister

    ‘Govt to renegotiate programme with IMF’: Finance Minister

    The new Federal Minister for Finance and Revenue, Shaukat Tarin has said that the government of Pakistan is trying to renegotiate the terms of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme.

    Tarin said this during the National Assembly Finance and Revenue meeting on Monday. He said he is trying to convince IMF that price hikes in electricity tariffs will only create problems for the people, as the country is already deeply impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

    “We have assured IMF of reducing circular debt but the demand of increasing tariff is not understandable,” he said.

    Tarin further added that the terms and conditions can also be fulfilled if the government “curtails circular debt through other means instead of increasing the tariff.”

    “Financial and monetary wallets are open all over the world but the IMF’s sword is only hanging over us,” Tarin maintained.

    In addition, the State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) cannot be managed by the government, and they must be privatised.

    “The 17 per cent General Sales Tax (GST) rate is very high, and a mechanism has been prepared for its reduction,” he said.

    On stabilising Pakistan’s economy, the finance minister said that the four to five per cent economic growth is enough for Pakistan, and the government will now focus on achieving the above-stated targets.

    He regretted that the government is spending 85 per cent revenue on only nine cities and rarely invests in education and health.

    Unless the country moved to higher economic growth, nothing would improve, and if we continue with stabilisation that has been in place for over two years, neither revenue collection would go up, nor job opportunities would be available to people, he explained.

    He said the government would increase the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) in the next budget and provide equal growth opportunities to all provinces.

    As the country lacks proper planning, Tarin said that he had selected 10 to 12 sectors on which economic experts had already started working so that they could come up with long-term planning for areas such as price stability, agriculture, industry, revenue, housing, social protection, national services, debt management and privatisation of loss-making state-run entities.

    The committee chairman assured the finance minister of all cooperation by committee members.