ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan on Monday asked the country’s business community to provide suggestions to boost tax collection, ARY News reported.
“We took up the challenge to shore up the country’s crippling economy within six months,” the premier said while speaking to a delegation of businessmen who called on him at the PM House in Islamabad.
He said the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government was now working toward improving the economy. “Trade and foreign investment are our foreign policy’s important pillar. The government is now focusing on promoting the economic growth,” said PM Khan.
Read More: 1.7mn taxpayers cannot support a population of 210mn: PM Imran
The delegation reposed complete trust in the incumbent government’s economic policies and expressed satisfaction over its measures to facilitie business growth in the country.
Earlier, on Feb 21, Prime Minister Imran Khan had said only 1.7 million people were paying tax, which couldn’t support 210 million population of Pakistan.
Addressing a ceremony to honour taxpayers in Islamabad, PM Khan said the government couldn’t bear overall expenses under the current ratio of taxpayers in the country.
He said the indirect tax is collected from poor people, which is a great injustice. He said Pakistan had great potential and it could raise the revenue collection up to Rs 8 trillion.
The prime minister said collecting zakat from wealthy people and spending it on poor people was the fundamental principle of the State of Madinah. He said Pakistan couldn’t be made a welfare state without following that principle.
