Government has doubled expenditures on the welfare of poor: IShaq Dar

Lahore: Finance Minister Ishaq Dar has said achieving the revenue target is imperative to to develop programs for future of the country. Addressing the conference of FBR officials in Islamabad today, he was confident that  the FBR has the capacity to achieve the revenue target. He said 1574 billion rupees have been collected in the first nine months as compared to 1352 billion rupees during the corresponding period last year. This, he said, shows increase of sixteen point four percent growth in revenue collection. However much more needs to be done to achieve the target.

Ishaq Dar said the present government has doubled expenditures on the welfare of poor. The expenditures on the poor segments have been enhanced from forty billion rupees to seventy five billion rupees.

He directed the Federal Board of Revenue to further gear up its efforts to achieve the revenue collection target of 2345 billion rupees set for the current fiscal year.

Appreciating the performance of FBR in revenue collection, the Finance Minister said 214 billion rupees were collected in the month of March. From now onward the FBR will have to collect 257 billion rupees per month to achieve the revenue collection target.

Ishaq Dar said the economic indicators are showing positive trends and the same have been endorsed by the international financial institutions. GDP has witnessed growth while the inflation level has also come down. The appreciation of Pakistani rupee has reduced our debt by seven hundred to eight hundred billion rupees.

The finance minister said that the country’s entry into the international bond market after seven years was a success story and our bond oversubscribed many times.

Rejecting media reports that the government has decided not to increase the salaries of public sector employees in the next budget, Ishaq Dar categorically stated that the decision in this regard will be taken keeping in view the fiscal space and inflation level.