Observer Report Karachi
The Federal Finance Minister, Shaukat Tarin, has said, “The country’s economy is recovering, with revenue collection 40% above last year”.
Regarding the Govern-ment’s plans to augment the economy and enhance the capital markets, he stated, “We will consolidate industry through CRA to create scale.
We are working on reforming the SOEs and those SOEs which have sufficient cash available will be encouraged to pay dividends and that will help increase value of PSX”.
The minister was addressing the busi-nessmen during his visit to PSX the other day.
He apprised the participants that the Gov-ernment was focusing on IT & software exports and encouraging Start-ups.
He fur-ther elaborated that the Ministry is encour-aging banks and DFIs to work together with capital market entities.
“I am extremely happy with the progress made by PSX”, the Finance Minister added.
Towards the end, the Finance Minister affirmed to review the proposals and rec-ommendations of PSX and expressed his willingness to expedite PSX tax refunds, re-instate tax rebate for companies upon listing, support SMEs growth through list-ing and funding capital market develop-ment.
The Minister affirmed that he will continue visiting PSX on quarterly basis to evaluate the development and progress of the capital market and follow through for successful implementation.
He was accompanied by Dr. Waqar Masood Khan, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister and. Asim Ahmad, Chair-man, FBR. The Minister was received and welcomed by the PSX Chairperson, Dr. Shamshad Akhtar.
The Govt officials held talks with the Managing Director of PSX, Board Members and Capital Market stake-holders regarding matters related to the Capital Market and its development.
In the meeting, the PSX Chairperson, Dr. Shamshad Akhtar told the Finance Minis-ter about the recent progress made by PSX. The Chairperson thanked the Federal Finance Minister for easing the tax regime for the investors and brokerage industry in the last budget as it was a welcome respite for the capital market.
With respect to the development of the capital market, she put forward recom-mendations and tabled matters which needed attention and focus of the Finance Ministry to make the capital market syn-chronized and better integrated with the financial markets.
The Chairperson PSX outlined the need for Government support i nt, etc.
