Inflation rate brought down from over 11pc to 4pc, says Miftah Ismail

ISLAMABAD: Speaking about the government’s achievements in the last five years, Adviser to Prime Minister on Finance Miftah Ismail on Monday said that inflation had been brought down from over 11 percent to under 4 percent while energy crisis had largely been resolved.

Addressing a Round Table Conference titled ‘Pakistan Paradise for Investment’ in Islamabad, he said Pakistan had achieved major successes on economic front over the last five years.

“Pakistan’s economy has the potential to grow by ten percent annually and if economic policies and reforms, introduced by the government in economic and taxation sectors, continued,” he said.

Miftah said the country was going to achieve 5.8 percent GDP growth, which was very close to the government’s target of 6 percent during the year 2017-18.

Read More: Pakistan inflation rate eases to 3.25 percent in March

He said we needed to decrease cost of doing business to make the local industries competitive with the world market and to attract more Foreign Direct Investment as well.

Elaborating the economic reforms package announced by the Prime Minister, Miftah Ismail said the government had announced special taxation relief, especially for the salaried class which was the highest tax paying.

He said from next fiscal year the employees who would have salaries less than 100,000 rupees per month would be exempted from paying taxes. The incumbent government raised the minimum threshold from 40’000 to 100,000 rupees, he said.

Miftah Ismail said with the help of National Database Regulator Authority, Federal Board of Revenue would identify rich people and will bring them into tax net.

“Through NADRA we are connecting data of rich and will give their names to the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) to bring them into tax net,” he said.

He said the most fundamental reforms were taken in the Real Estate Sector and according to the new policy, no non-filer would be able to purchase any real estate property.

Later talking to media, Miftah Ismail said that the prime minister had specially advised him to announce special package for government employees and pensioners in the 2018-19 budget.

He said although the inflation rate was under five percent but the government would give more relief to the employees and pensioners.