KARACHI: Finance Minister Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh vowed Saturday that the government will achieve the revised    tax collection target of Rs 1,588 billion.

“I state through the media, that we will Insha'Allah achieve this target”, he said while talking to media at a seminar on “FTO Citizen Report Card Study Launch”, organised by Transparency International Pakistan (TIP) at a    hotel here.

He said that the government will resort to austerity and cut government expenditure. We are trying to achieve self reliance by increasing domestic taxation judiciously without burdening the existing tax payers, he added.

“We will tax new sectors which were exempted. We will bring those wealthy people who never paid taxes to the net,” he asserted.

Federal Finance Minister said that the government will not cut the expenses on the common people.

“For example, we want to allocate more funds for income support programme. Provinces have been given additional Rs 700 to spend on education, health and other sectors of peoples' interests,” he added.