Information Minister Attaullah Tarar on Wednesday termed the federal budget for the upcoming fiscal year “relief-oriented”.

He made the remarks while speaking at a media briefing alongside State Minister for Finance Bilal Azhar Kayani. At the outset, the information minister said that certain segments were criticising for the sake of criticising.

“When Pakistan was on the brink of default … our macroeconomic indicators were at their lowest,” he said. He alleged that some government officials “went on holiday”, saying that they did not want the country to default during their tenure.

He recalled that at the time, no one was ready to work on the economy.

“In such a time, it was the PML-N leadership that stepped in and stabilised the economy as per the vision of Nawaz Sharif,” he said. He recalled that when Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif took charge of the government, several difficulties came up at the time as well.

He said that in the last two years, PM Shehbaz had always reassured the public that the government would provide relief whenever there was room for it.

“We did not just wait for room, we created it through consistent effort and as per a home-grown plan,” he remarked.

At this, he said that the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) had two to three major problems — digitisation was stalled, officials were corrupt and posted through personal recommendations and there was no coordinated tax collection system.

“PM Shehbaz’s vision was that he refused to place the burden of those who don’t pay tax onto those who do, and acting on it, he directed that FBR officials would be hired on a merit basis,” the information minister said.

“From income tax offices to ports, we now have a faceless system [..] any exporter whose shipments are pending clearance at the port would not have to interact with a customs official, but clearance is issued through a system and that too within days,” he said.

He said there was no room for “demands or delays” in such a system. Similarly, industries such as sugar, beverages, cement, and tobacco were “earning windfall profits but not paying taxes”, the minister said.

He said that PM Shehbaz first initiated tax collection from sugar mills.

“Cameras were installed inside sugar mills, and an IT system was installed to monitor production and sales, with every bag traceable through a QR code,” he said.

He added that for mills projecting lower production, an IT system took stock of their production. “Rs60 billion was collected in taxes from sugar mills alone,” he said.

In the tobacco industry, he said, there was a Rs200bn leak. He added that the illegal tobacco trade was halted and raids were conducted. Tarar said similar actions were being taken with regard to the beverage and cement industries.

He continued: “In relation to tax collection and dispute litigation, new tribunals have been established, and a new chairman has been appointed, which made possible the recovery of several billion rupees, stay orders were vacated, and the Law Ministry and attorney general were directed to ensure 100pc recovery.”

He said that in the past year, at least Rs800bn were received through enforcement. He noted that the development was independent of the IMF programme and the result of PM Shehbaz’s “personal efforts”.

“It was understood that tax collection should be improved, those who are liable to pay tax should pay it, and reforms should be implemented accordingly,” he said.

He said that the FBR has been completely reformed, especially in terms of enforcement capacity, IT systems, merit and transparency.

Clarity has been given to the salaried class as well, Tarar said.

“Anyone whose salary is Rs50,000 or less. For those within the bracket of Rs50,000 to Rs100,000, there will be 1pc tax, and for the slabs above that, it was demanded that the tax be reduced, and we complied with it,” the information minister said.

“Those who wish to buy houses of five to ten marlas, tax has been reduced for them as well,” Tarar said, adding that for the “Apna Ghar” scheme, the government had disbursed Rs90bn.

More to follow