Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb has said that the budget 2025-26 envisages measures such as tariff reforms to increase the competitiveness of Pakistan’s exports.
Addressing post budget news conference in Islamabad on Wednesday, he mentioned that out of seven thousand tariff lines, additional customs duty on four thousand tariff lines have been brought down to zero while the custom duty has been reduced on 2700 tariff lines. He said that reduction in the cost of raw materials and intermediary goods will enhance the productivity of industries and enhance exports.
He said tariff reforms is the most important step which were not carried out in the last thirty years. He emphasized that structural reforms will be taken forward.
The Finance Minister said that given the fiscal space available, the government tried to provide relief to the employees as much as possible. He said that increase in salaries and pension has been linked with the inflation.
He said this time the expenditure of government has just increased by less than two percent.
As regards the agriculture sector, the Finance Minister said an additional tax had to be imposed on fertilizer and pesticides this time but on the directions of the Prime Minister no additional tax has been imposed. He said agriculture has and will remain engine of growth for the economy. He said we will work with the provinces to extend more support to the small farmers. He said loans will be given to the small farmers.
The Finance Minister said that tax to GDP ratio will be 10.3 percent this year while this will reach 10.9 percent next year. He said the revenue collection has been enhanced through better enforcement, emphasizing that they are coming up with a legislation to further improve enforcement measures.
