Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb on Friday said that the government was committed to reducing the disproportionate tax burden on certain classes by widening the tax net.

Speaking on the Geo News programme ‘Aaj Shahzeb Khanzada Kay Saath’ following the unveiling of a Rs18.8 trillion budget for the next fiscal year, Aurangzeb said: “Exporters, manufacturers, the IT sector, construction and the salaried class — we tried to give them relief. Now the direction of travel is identified, and we will continue working to reduce the disproportionate tax burden by widening our tax net.”

Responding to a question regarding practical measures to expand the tax net and ensure compliance, the finance minister said that the government needs to adopt a twofold strategy: tax deepening and broadening.

“By deepening, I mean that we need to fix leakages, fight corruption and tax evasion through compliance and enforcement. I believe we will get huge upside through this,” he said.

“The government also needs to structurally move forward in order to broaden its tax net,” he added.

Talking about the provinces’ share and proposed reduction in development funds, Aurangzeb said that two provinces of Pakistan — Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan — were undergoing internal disorder, adding: “It was necessary to empower security forces and especially the civil armed forces; that’s why we asked provinces to contribute.”

The finance minister also thanked all provincial governments for their cooperation with the federal government in taking strategic measures.

Meanwhile, Aurangzeb emphasised that the government did not announce new taxes for the next fiscal year.

Aurangzeb said he was aware of the challenges faced by the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) and was working on replacing traditional workflows with AI-led mechanisms with “zero human intervention”.

Talking about the ongoing conflict involving the United States, Israel and Iran, the finance minister said he was hopeful that the efforts made by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Field Marshal Asim Munir would be successful. However, he added that the economic impact of the conflict would continue into the next fiscal year.

During the presentation of the budget in the National Assembly earlier today, the minister said the budget for the coming year had been prepared with a “clear and purposeful” strategy, and that the top priority was to increase production capacity and promote exports.

“For this reason, we are giving tax concessions to large industries and are providing resources to exporters through the Export Financing Scheme,” he added.

The finance minister said the government was also focused on increasing revenues through tax enforcement and compliance rather than increasing the tax burden on the people. “For this purpose, we are making changes to the compliance and enforcement mechanism and carrying out reforms in the FBR,” he said.