Staff Reporter
Lahore
Advisor to Prime Minister on Finance and Revenue Abdul Hafeez Shaikh on Thursday said that previous governments’ financial policies caused severe damage to the national economy, but now Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government had steered the country out of economic crisis by paying back huge loans and taking comprehensive steps to boost exports.
He expressed these views during a meeting with Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry office-bearers and other businessmen at Governor’s House here.
He said the government was taking steps to put the economy on the path to sustainable growth and creating employment opportunities for the youth. He predicted that the graph of unemployment would go down sharply in the coming days.
The Adviser said that when the PTI government came to power, it inherited a huge debt that it had to repay due to which it had decided to seek financial support from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for overcoming the crises, adding that PTI’s economic policies had started yielding positive results.
He said that all possible facilities would be extended to business community, but they would have to streamline their tax affairs in order to contribute to national exchequer, adding that the business community was playing an effective role in progress and prosperity of the country by creating employment opportunities besides contributing to the exports.
Abdul Hafeez Shaikh asserted that hard challenges including high current account deficit and artificially high exchange rate had been overcome by the government. Also, factors causing de-industrialization, hampering exports and promoting an import-based economy were also addressed.
He said the government focused on enhancing exports as duties on numerous raw materials had been reduced, whereas the energy had also been provided at subsidized rates to export sectors.
The advisor said the problem of refunds on permanent basis would also be resolved, adding that through new refund system (faster plus), the private sector could track the progress on their refunds. If there was a slight delay, the online system would inform about the reason for the delay.
