Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif says the government is all set to take tough decisions to steer the country out of economic crisis.
Addressing a cheque distribution ceremony in Muzaffarabad among the affected people by torrential rains and snowfall today, he said the government is fully committed to tap huge potential of natural and agriculture resources, stop smuggling, power theft, and losses of the State Owned Entities.
The Prime Minister said the country’s tax collection target for the current fiscal year is 1.2 trillion which is not up to the true potential due to tax evasion.
He said tax evasion is one of the biggest challenges that would be resolved to increase country’s resources.
He said even the salaries of the employees are being paid with the borrowed money.
The Prime Minister said this is the right time to take tough and important decisions to resolve all key challenges, the country is facing.
As regards the losses of SOEs, the Prime Minister informed that the SOEs are incurring losses of hundreds of billions rupees as the loss of only Pakistan International Airlines is around 825 billion rupees. Similarly power theft annually incurs 500 billion rupees.
He called for setting aside all the differences in the larger national interest.
Talking about the losses and damages occurred due to recent rains, snowfalls and land sliding in Azad Jammu and Kashmir, the Prime Minister expressed his grief and sorrow over the loss of eight precious lives and prayed for early recovery of those injured in the incidents.
He said that the government of Pakistan always stood with its Kashmiri brothers and sisters in the hour of need.
The Prime Minister said Jammu and Kashmir is the jugular vein of Pakistan and it would not leave alone the people of Kashmir in this hour of difficulty.
He said two million rupees each would be distributed among the families of the deceased and 500,000 rupees each to those injured in the recent incidents. Similarly, 700,000 rupees each would be given to those whose houses were completely damaged while 350,000 rupees would be given to those whose houses were partly damaged.
