Wednesday, August 13th, 2025
Home »Business and Economy » Pakistan » 45 transactions completed in 5 years, says minister

  • News Desk
  • Feb 4th, 2005
  • Comments Off on 45 transactions completed in 5 years, says minister
Privatisation and Investment Minister Dr Hafeez Shaikh has said that 45 transactions amounting to Rs 85 billion have been completed in the last five years. He was addressing a seminar on "Trade and Investment Opportunities in Pakistan" on Thursday. These transactions were made out of the 144 transactions since 1991 amounting to Rs 143 billion.

The minister assured the investors that the transparency would be maintained in the process of privatisation.

"The current privatisation programme includes many attractive opportunities in the finance, oil and gas, telecommunications, power and industry sector," he said, adding, "the privatisation in Pakistan provides new avenues for growth of the investment and enables the investors to play a vital role in the economic development of the country."

He presented an overview of the privatisation in Pakistan.

Abdullah Yousuf, Chairman, Central Board of Revenue (CBR), said that the CBR has changed the mode of taxation and instead of tax investment and production, income and consumption are being taxed.

In his detail overview of Federal Tax Structure of Pakistan, Abdullah said that tax reforms produced good results for the country and the revenue increased significantly.

He said: "The reform of tax administration is the cornerstone of CBR institutional reform agenda." He said the CBR was working hared to create conducive environment for economic activities in the country.

He said special attention has been paid to upgrade the skill and competence of tax personnel through intensive internal and external training for proper working.

"New entrants in the system are required to obtain degree in Tax administration, he said, adding, "a joint programme in this regard is in progress with one of the leading educational institutions of Pakistan."

NEW STRATEGY: Abdullah said that the CBR has embarked upon a new strategy to strengthen interface with taxpayer. "The new strategy aims at universal customer-friendly approach, which is crucial for the success of the universal self-assessment schemes.

He said that the gradual drifting down of rates, the tariff line for the currently four slabs (5pc, 10pc, 20pc and 25pc) increased gradually from only 944 in FY-01-02 to 6011 in FY-04-05.

"The combined share of these four slabs has jumped from 17.3 percent of the total tariff lines in 1995-96 to a record level of 96 percent in 2004-05," he said.

He said the dependence on indirect taxes has been replaced with the direct taxes. Within direct taxes, the share of customs duty and central excise has declined from 44 percent to 26 percent to 25.4 percent and 12.6 percent respectively within a short span of 13 years.

The share of GST in the total revenue gradually increased from 15.4 percent in FY90-91 to 42.2 percent in FY-03-04.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2005


the author

Top
Close
Close