ISLAMABAD, Nov 27: Adviser to Prime Minister Shaukat Tarin said on Thursday that the government would extend scope of taxes to every earning sector in the next five to seven years to enhance tax-to-GDP ratio to 15 per cent from the exiting nine per cent.“The government is not planning levy of tax on agriculture income in the next 23 months of the IMF standby arrangement programme,” said Mr Tarin while replying to a question after inaugurating the first meeting of the Census Advisory Committee on 6th Population and Housing Census.

He said that the IMF had not attached any conditions before approving $7.6 billion loan package for Pakistan. However, he said the fund had asked the country for resource mobilisation to reduce fiscal deficit.

He said that the government would have to take measures to mobilise resources, including extending scope of taxes to untapped sectors for reducing the fiscal deficit.

Asked whether the government was considering making cuts in funds for development, the adviser said that the government was not slashing development funds, and instead it had plans to prioritise the projects.

“We have Rs400 billion unutilised development funds in banks and first we have to use them for social sector development,” he added.

The adviser said that the Friends of Pakistan are scheduled to meet on Dec 16 in New York to discuss financial support and project financing to Pakistan.

Replying to a question, Mr Tarin termed inflation as the biggest hurdle and said that the government would check it through a nine-point agenda initiated for stabilisation of economy.

He said efforts were being made to tame inflation and tight monetary policy of the central bank would help arrest the phenomenon.

“We have also reduced borrowings from the SBP,” he remarked.

Speaking to participants of the workshop, Mr Tarin said that the government had ensured gender equality in all walks of life to allow women to play their role in socio-economic development of the country.

He urged the Population Census Organisation to provide detailed and credible data on women. He strongly recommended deployment of women as field enumeration staff to improve quality of data relating to women on all aspects.

“The results of census are used as a critical reference to ensure equity in distribution of resources, government services and political representation,” he remarked.

He said that the census data is also used in development planning in education, health services, delineating electoral units at the national and local levels, and measuring the impact of industrial development.

He urged the Population Census Organisation to add household income to their agenda as this would help make necessary interventions by the government as and when necessary.

Shaukat Tarin said that there was a great need to manifest the necessity of accurate census information amongst people.