LAHORE: Punjab Finance Minister Dr Ayesha Ghaus Pasha on Tuesday acknowledged domestic investments in Punjab were not at the encouraging level while the memoranda of understanding (MoU) signed by foreign companies would take time to mature.
“There is a dire need to encourage domestic investors to bring their investments to the province and the provincial government has taken some initiatives in this regard by overcoming terrorism, improving infrastructure and facilitating businesses,” the minister said while addressing a budget training session arranged for journalists at the Lahore Press Club.
Ms Pasha said allocating resources under the head of ‘block allocations’ in the budget was not an encouraging trend for development but the provincial governments were dependent on the federal government for resources which made them prepare budget with this provision.
The provincial government had reduced the percentage of block allocations in the previous budget which would further decline in the forthcoming budget after getting some financial autonomy under 18th Amendment.
Ms Pasha told a questioner that the Punjab Revenue Authority (PRA), which collects general sales tax on services, had witnessed 35 per cent growth in the first 10 months of 2015-16 compared to the last year, saying the number of registered taxpayers had also doubled, reaching up to 22,000 during the same period.
She said the progress in taxation and tax administration was the priority areas for the government’s growth strategy which wanted to bring in the untaxed and under-taxed segments into the tax net.
“Our priority is not to overburden the existing and regular taxpayers with more taxes but to catch tax evaders to improve public exchequer and its development spending.”
The minister said the provincial government was introducing tax automation to break relation between the taxpayer and tax collector to plug in tax evasion.
Admitting that there were some sectors which were yet to be tapped for tax, Pasha said after tax automation the government would focus on other hidden sectors.
To a question that the government had been criticised for infrastructure-focused spending at the cost of the services and social sector, the minister said the government was spending on all sectors but infrastructure development spending was very crucial to attain growth targets, including local and foreign investment.
To another question about overnight shifts in energy mix, the minister quoted an independent research which said at least two percent of gross domestic product (GDP) growth was being compromised annually due to power shortages.
She explained the government had initially invested 100mw in solar power generation to further attract private sector to invest in and now it was working on other renewable energy generation projects.
Published in Dawn, May 25th, 2016
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