• When told that Prime Minister Imran Khan did not seem happy with the performance of his ministry, Tarin replied: “We will go home. What are we going to do.”
• “There is nothing we can do to control inflationary tendencies, caused by imported factors,” he told KCCI members.
• Attributes rising inflation in the country to global trends.

KARACHI: Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin has said he would resign if Prime Minister Imran Khan is unhappy with the finance ministry’s performance.

Shaukat Tarin’s remarks came after his department was not included in the top 10 best performing federal departments, The news reported.

According to the details, after attending a ceremony at the Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI), Tarin did not answer questions when reporters tried to speak to him.

However, when told by a reporter that the prime minister did not seem happy with his ministry’s performance, he replied, “We will go home. What are we going to do.”

The government has made every effort to control inflation

Earlier, Tarin told KCCI members that the government has made every effort to control inflation, which is caused by internal factors. “There is nothing we can do to control inflationary tendencies, caused by imported factors,” he said. The finance minister said that inflation was not just a concern for Pakistan, but even the United States, United Kingdom and Germany were worried about it, as rising commodity prices in global level had caused problems all over the world.

“Even US President Biden phoned Saudi King Salman about soaring crude oil prices in the global market,” he added. Tarin attributed rising inflation in the country to global trends and said the government had taken a hit of Rs 22-24 billion a month for not raising taxes on petroleum products despite the surge in prices crude on the international market.

“We have reduced sales taxes on petroleum products to zero and even reduced the Petroleum Development Tax (PDL) to stabilize domestic oil prices despite the surge in the global market,” Tarin pointed out. He said the prices of cooking oil, pulses and charcoal had also peaked in the international market and Pakistan was dependent on imports to meet domestic needs for these products. Tarin said inflation could be countered by increasing middle class incomes. According to Prime Minister Imran Khan’s vision, a vast program would soon be launched to shore up the incomes of the middle class segments of society.

He said the economy was on track and Pakistan needed sustainable and inclusive growth to repeatedly shed loans from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), other agencies and donor countries. “Pakistanis are a resilient nation and can turn things around provided they are given a level playing field,” he added. He said China agreed to help Pakistan in various areas of economy during Prime Minister Imran Khan’s recent visit to the country. China will help end-to-end agriculture to increase the output of this sector as well as supporting information technology (IT) by investing in it, relocating industrial units to special economic zones and creating jobs for the youth of Pakistan. . “The prime minister has asked Chinese leaders to help Pakistan in industry to boost the country’s exports to $50 billion over the next five years to balance foreign trade,” he said.

The government will soon introduce a special package for SMEs

Separately, speaking at the inaugural ceremony of ‘Kamyab Jawan Markaz’ at the Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI), the Finance Minister announced that the government will soon introduce a special package for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) with the probable tax exemptions and regulations applicable to them. He talked about various government initiatives to boost the national economy and said that a few sectors like housing, information technology, commerce, etc. require special attention to achieve 5% growth. He said the government would not let the low income group rely on the trickle down effect of growth in major sectors but would take the bottom up approach and the Kamyab Jawan program was part of the strategy.

He also announced the expansion of the scope of the Kamyab Pakistan program nationwide, which was currently operating in Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to successfully provide interest-free loans to farmers, low-interest loans for housing, Sehat card, etc. Rs 1.4 trillion and Rs 120-140 billion would be part of the budget every year,” Tarin said.

Responding to complaints from KCCI members about Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) raids on Karachi retailers, Tarin said he was aware of the raids. However, he pointed out that only two million people pay income tax out of a total of 38 million, which is not a positive sign. He said the government had collected people’s income data to calculate the exact income tax, which should be paid. “Independent auditors would look into the cases if anyone disputed the tax, charged by the government against the income,” the finance minister said.

On the retail sector, Tarin disclosed that the total value of the sector is Rs 18 trillion to Rs 20 trillion but Rs 16 trillion of retailers are out of the tax net which would be incorporated into the tax net. He told KCCI members that 20 billion rupees was earmarked for the DLTL scheme, which was increased to 100 billion rupees after taking over from the Ministry of Finance.

Earlier, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister (SAPM) for Youth Affairs Usman Dar said 5,000 stores would be opened in Karachi next month under the Kamyab Jawan scheme, adding that 25,000 businesses had established under this program with the disbursement of Rs 33 billion so far. in the countryside. He paid tribute to Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin by making groundbreaking changes to the program after taking over as Finance Minister.