Punjab to unveil budget in first week of May

Punjab Finance Minister Dr Ayesha Ghaus Pasha has said that there would be no more taxes in the budget 2018-19 that would be announced in first week of May. The Minister revealed this while briefing the members of the Lahore Economic Journalists Association here Friday. Punjab Revenue Authority (PRA) Chairman Dr Raheel Ahmad Siddiqui was also present on the occasion.
She said the provincial government has negotiated a deal of US $300 million with the World Bank for revamping the informal agriculture sector so that the farmers could be saved from exploitation of middlemen.
After revamping of the informal agriculture sector, the farmers would be able to sell their produce at better price in the market she said adding that the revamping would bring a visible change in the farming sector while non-farming sector would also be developed. Apart from agriculture sector, the government will give focus on small & medium enterprises (SME) and announce a special package in the next budget as 65 percent of the total SMEs exist in the Punjab province, the minister said. Under the five-component based package, the youth will be provided market demand driven training access to finance on the pattern of Kissan Package, credit guarantee insurance on concessional term, development of academia-industry linkage, and development of industrial clusters in the province, the minister added.
Responding to a question regarding government's reluctance to generate revenue through Agriculture Income Tax, Dr Ayesha Ghaus Pasha said the government is planning to give a boost to the agriculture sector as 70 percent of the country's exports depend only on this sector. How can we compete India in agriculture products in the international market as it is providing huge subsidies to farmers?
She further said that the Punjab government is waiting for constitutional go-head signal from the federal government for arranging debt financing through launching of bonds. She said the infrastructural gap would be bridged through public-private partnership. The current account expenditures, particularly on education and health sector usually increase for making the project sustainable, she said.
Dr Raheel Ahmed Siddiqui while briefing about the performance of Punjab Revenue Authority, said it registered 35-40 percent growth in revenue. "We are optimistic that the revenue collection would surpass Rs 100 billion by the end of this fiscal" he added. With a view to provide relief, we have already slashed tax on construction industry from 16 percent to 5 percent. He further said that number of filers in Punjab has reached to 48,000 which are expected to increase to 100,000 till 2020. The province's dependence on telecom sector is being reduced gradually as it came down from 78 percent of the total collection to 22 percent. There were only 12 sectors in the tax net after PRA came into being but now it has brought 60 sectors in the tax net, PRA chairman added.