Advisor to Prime Minister on Finance and Revenue, Shaukat Tarin on Monday said the government wanted to bring back Pakistan’s past economic glory when Pakistan was among one of the four largest economies in Asian region.
In 1960s, he said, “we were counted with economies like China and Japan, when we were economically strong” while addressing as chief guest in,’ Kamyab Jawan Convention’.
The event was jointly organized by Islamabad Chamber Chamber of Commerce commerce (ICCI) and Kamyab Jawan Program in ICCI Auditorium.
The advisor distributed cheques of business loans and certificate of skills training among the youngsters at the occasion.
He said the Kamyab Kisan Program would also be launched soon as the government was focusing on promotion of agriculture and Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs).
He said these programs would help revive the lost economic glory of Pakistan. The Advisor said the government was focusing on human resource capital and Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs), which would be our top priority.
Tarin said the government was working hard on human resource capital and interest-free loans, adding, skills development courses for young people, agricultural loans, home loans in easy installments and health cards were the major steps taken to achieve the target.
According to the vision of Prime Minister Imran Khan, they were taking important policy steps for the progress of youth, he said.
The advisor said many resource deficient countries like Japan had achieved phenomenal economic growth by focusing on human resource development, adding, the Prime Minister’s vision was to promote youth to drive Pakistan on a sustainable growth trajectory.
Shaukat Tarin said the young population was 60 percent of the country without which the country could not move forward.
He said raising the tax-to-Gross Domestic Product (GDP) ratio to 20 percent could improve the country’s growth rate which provided employment opportunities to the youth.
The current tax-to-GDP tax rate in Pakistan was nine percent which was needed to be doubled at least upto 20 percent, he remarked.
“There is no way out without paying taxes because we use the resources of this country, so taxes are obligatory on all sections, including traders,” he said.
The advisor said that no one had the right to get benefit from national resources without paying taxes Tarin said in future, there would be only two taxes including income tax and consumption tax while all other taxes would be abolished.
He assured that the government would resolve difficulties of traders on tax matters and no harassment of taxpayers would be allowed.
Shaukat Tarin said the government’s flagship project Kamyab Jawan Program (KJP) would bring grassroots revolution in Pakistan and pave the way for making Pakistan a welfare state.
He said KJP was a complete package to promote youth in entrepreneurship, skill development and other fields.
On the occasion Special Assistant to Prime Minister for Youth Affairs, Usman Dar highlighted the key features of Kamyab Jawan Program, which provided business loans ranging from Rs.100,000 to Rs.25 million.
He said an amount of Rs.100 billion had been earmarked for providing business loans to youth, out of which, loans of Rs.30 billion had been approved for 22000 youngsters and the remaining amount would also be approved soon.
