May 23, 2006	Tuesday	Rabi-us-Sani 24, 1427

KARACHI, May 22: Dr Salman Shah, adviser to the prime minister on finance, has said the government will try to balance expenditure and revenue and provide maximum relief to low income group in the upcoming budget.

Speaking at a pre-budget seminar here one Monday he said the tax collection system would be further simplified so that more people come into tax net. The government would focus on improving the poor tax-to-GDP ratio for achieving sustained economic growth.

The promotion of self-assessment concept of tax collection would be among the incentives for widening the tax base.

He said that the inflation target for next fiscal year would be 6 per cent, while inflation by the end of June 2006 was expected to come below 8 per cent. The balance of payments would be surplus, he added.

He said the Monopoly Control Authority had been converted into Competition Authority with main objective of promoting competition, discouraging cartels and removing the barriers to entry and exit.

He assured that the government was taking all possible steps to reduce the cost of doing business to make the private sector competitive in the world market.

“We want to make the economy competitive not only for domestic investors but also for foreign ones,” he added.

He said 25 per cent of total population was living below poverty line and the government had set the target of reducing poverty to its half by 2015 through capacity expansion to meet the millennium goals.

Dr Shah underlined the need for maximum participation of rural and urban communities to ensure sustained economic growth.

He said the country was short of skilled manpower and research to cope with local and international market demand. “Presently we are spending 2.5 per cent of the annual budget on human resource development and President Pervez Musharraf has given directives for enhancing this amount to at least 4 per cent”, he added.

He said the government was working seriously for improving education and health care facilities as no country could make progress without caring for these issues.

He emphasized for administrative and institutional reforms in the country to make the economy market-oriented.—APP