ISLAMABAD: The Finance (Supplementary) Bill, 2021 is aimed at documentation of economy instead generating revenue, Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin said on Thursday.
On the floor of the lower house, the finance minister said that the supplementary bill had been drafted to document the economy. He said that in the past no such efforts were made to document the economy.
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Tarin said that the retail sector had annual turnover of Rs20 trillion, out of which only Rs3.5 trillion was documented.
He said that the government was endeavoring to document the supply side in order to boost the direct taxes.
Meanwhile, spokesperson to Minister of Finance, Muzammil Aslam said that supplementary finance bill was aimed at documenting the national economy, capturing the tax value chain and enhancing taxpayers penetration through simplification of revenue system for broadening of the tax base.
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Addressing a press conference along with Adviser to Prime Minister on Parliamentary Affairs Dr Babar Awan, Muzammil said that other objective of the reform measures were to discourage the rent-seeking culture, taxing the rich and transferring it to improve the living standards of under-privileged segments of the society.
He termed the reform measures introduced in the money bill as historic, which would have not any negative impact on common people in the country, adding that it would help in documentation of economy and overcome the tax evasion.
He said that previous regimes had put the poor under tax burden, where as the wealth of the ruling class kept on increasing. He said that the supplementary finance bill would have no impact on common people, even if there were any such measures, these have been removed.
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Muzammil Aslam further said that private sector credit intake witnessed significant increase and reached to Rs1,400 billion, adding that government was also working to promote public-private partnership to improve service delivery of public sector institutions to turn them into profit oriented entities.
The government had also introduced steps for the autonomy of State Bank of Pakistan he said adding that out of 10 board members, government would appoint 08 members, besides taking measures for strengthening the monetary committee.
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