Call to reduce expenditure, revenue rift

Federal Minister for Finance, Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh called for reducing gap between non-developmental expenditures and revenues to improve socio-economic conditions of the masses.
He said government has allocated rupees 730 billion funds for development projects, increased BISP funds from Rs 35 billion to Rs 65 billion for helping poor segments of the society, 15 percent pay raise in the salaries of government employees, 15-20 percent raise in pension, besides announcing incentives for the taxpayers.
Talking to PTV, Dr Hafeez said that despite the fact the country was hit by floods last year and other challenges, the government presented the best budget and is also working hard on many sectors for creating job opportunities for unemployed youths in the country.
He said the government has increased allocations to Rs 65 billion for BISP to help the poor people. He said that the government will have to reduce its dependence on borrowing. He commented that government has taken good steps by reducing duties on many items. He said the federal excise duty on many items has been abolished while duty on other items was also reduced from 12 to six percent. He said the regulatory duty on 392 items had been removed.
The minister said that special excise duty has completely been abolished. He said that sales tax has been reduced from 17 per cent to 16 percent. He said the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) is striving to improve the system. This will help achieve the objective as laid down by it in the revenue collection.