Addressing a post-budget press briefing in Islamabad, the finance minister said that he wanted to remove the concept of non-filers. “I think Pakistan is the only country with non-filers,” he said and added that non-filers would see an increase in tax in transaction.
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Stressing a need for digitisation, he said, “We aim to end the undocumented economy and digitise finances. Talk about the FBR’s performance is also warranted, since the compliance and enforcement were not up to par. End-to-end digitisation tends to reduce human intervention. Corruption will go down, there will be transparency and improved client service.
On Wednesday, the finance minister presented the federal budget for the upcoming fiscal year (FY2024-25) with a total outlay of Rs18.9 trillion. It aims for a modest 3.6 per cent GDP growth, and sets an ambitious Rs13tr tax collection target, raising taxes on salaried classes and removing tax exemptions for the rest.
During Thursday’s press briefing, he was flanked by Minister of State for Finance Ali Pervaiz Malik, Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) Chairman Malik Amjad Zubair Tiwana and others.
The finance minister said, “Our basic principles while framing this budget were to expand the tax base. This sub-10pc tax-to-GDP ratio is simply not sustainable.” He said that the government must increase it every year so that in the next three years, we can take it to 13pc.
Responding to several queries from journalists regarding the proposed federal budget, Aurangzeb clarified that the hike in petroleum levy would not be applied immediately at once but gradually through the “first fiscal year”. “We will implement this while keeping global fuel prices in view.”
He acknowledged that the salaried class should not be burdened with progressive income tax. He said that some changes had been proposed regarding the tax slabs for salaried class.
The finance minister said the action should have been taken in 2022 to bring retailers and traders into the tax net. He said, “Retailers are our brothers and sisters. We need to bring them into the [tax] net to ease the burden on them.”
