PTI govt presented a relief-focused budget for fiscal year 2020-21: Hafeez Sheikh

ISLAMABAD: Adviser to the Prime Minister on Finance and Revenue Abdul Hafeez Shaikh on Saturday said the budget presented for next fiscal year is focused to cope with the impacts of Covid-19 and provide relief to the people, ARY News reported.

While addressing a post-budget news conference in Islamabad along with Information Minister Shibli Faraz and Minister for Industries and Production Hammad Azhar, the adviser said the PTI government imposed no new tax imposed in the federal budget 2020-21 keeping in view the Covid-19 situation.

Rs40-50billion concessions have been given in taxes and duties to support the industrial sector and create job opportunities,” he said.

Hafeez Sheikh said the government took the decision of cutting its own expenditures keeping in view the problems faced by the masses. “The development outlay has been set at Rs650 billion while allocations for Ehsaas Program have been enhanced”.

Speaking about the loans taken by the incumbent government, the adviser said that the government took loans to clear the loans taken by previous governments.

The PTI government paid back Rs2700 billion of loans in 2019 and this year we will pay back 2900 billion rupees in loans, added the finance adviser.

Giving a breakup of the relief given in taxes, massive relief has been given to different sectors in taxes especially to the construction industry.

“Duty on hospitality sector is being reduced from 1.5 percent to 0.5 percent. Taxes and duties are being abolished on the testing kits of coronavirus and cancer,” he added.

He was of the view that said Govt had achieved economic stability in the first nine months of outgoing fiscal year. However, the breakout of the corona Virus has adversely affected the economy and inflicted loss of three trillion rupees to the GDP.

“Tax collection witnessed a growth of 17 percent in the first nine months of outgoing fiscal year but the closure of business activity in the wake of Covid-19 impacted the tax collection,” he said while highlighting the achievements on the economic front in the first 9 months.

He said that government brought down the current account deficit from US$20 billion to three billion dollars, adding that foreign direct investment witnessed an increase of 137 percent in the first nine months of the outgoing fiscal year.

Talking about the situation arising out of Covid-19, the Adviser on Finance said the government announced a stimulus package of Rs1200 billion and Rs1200cash had been disbursed to 10million people under the Ehsaas Program.

It is pertinent to mention here that Minister for Industries Hammad Azhar yesterday presented the much-anticipated budget for the fiscal year 2020-2021 in National Assembly.

The minister explained in detail, his government’s economic goals and why a certain allocation was made to a particular sector while presenting the budget with a total outlay of Rs7.13 trillion. The major allocations are Rs25.5 billion for health, Rs83.3 billion for education and Rs1.3 trillion for defence.