The Saudi Fund for Development (SFD), on behalf of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, has extended the term for the deposit of $3 billion maturing on December 5, 2024, for another year, the State Bank of Pakistan said on Thursday. This development followed by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Saudi Arabia Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman’s meeting during the former’s visit to Riyadh two days ago on the sidelines of the “One Water Summit”. During the meeting, both leaders had agreed to bring about a qualitative change in the economic, trade and investment relationship between the two countries. They also expressed satisfaction at the pace of progress in the implementation of Saudi MoUs and agreements regarding investment in Pakistan. In its statement, the central bank said: “The said amount has been placed with State Bank of Pakistan on behalf of Islamic Republic of Pakistan.” “The extension of the term of the deposit is continuation of the support provided by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, which will help in strengthening the foreign exchange reserves of Pakistan and contribute to the country’s economic growth and development,” it added. It is worth noting that the $3 billion deposit agreement was initially signed with SFD in the year 2021 and subsequently rolled over in 2022 and 2023, after the issuance of the royal directives that reflect the continuation of the close relationship between the two brotherly countries, as per the central bank. Separately, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Thursday directed the authorities concerned to ensure effective and swift taxation and take strict measures to implement the strategy for revenue collection. The prime minister, who chaired a review meeting on the country’s economic situation and digitization of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), said that the FBR’s digitization was a key component of the government’s agenda of economic reforms, according to a PM Office press release. He appreciated the progress in the FBR’s digitization and lauded the efforts of the finance minister, state minister for finance, FBR chairman and secretary of finance. Expressing satisfaction over the increasing fiscal space, he said the efforts of the economic team were coming to fruition. The prime minister directed to complete the important tasks related to the FBR’s digitization by the end of this month. He said that consequent to the crackdown against the smuggled fuel and reduction in petrol and diesel prices, the sale of petroleum products had reached 1.58 million metric tons – the highest ever during the last 25 months. Instructing strict measures to curb petrol smuggling, Prime Minister Shehbaz said that 15% increase in the year-on-year sale of petroleum products showed the revival of the energy market. He told the participants of the meeting that the timely decision for the sugar export brought in $500 million in remittance. The meeting was told that the digitization of FBR’s value chain will be completed by March next year. The video analytics of the sugar industry has already been completed. The prime minister called for early installation of the cement industry’s video analytics system. It was told that work on system design for digital invoices has been completed and a mobile phone application for the digital invoicing of small businesses would be ready by the end of this month. The participants were told that a new board of Pakistan Revenue Automation Ltd (PRAL) has been constituted and the organisation’s hardware and data center is also being upgraded. Besides, a central assessment unit for faceless customs assessment at Karachi Airport will start functioning by this year end. Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar, Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal, Economic Affairs Minister Ahad Cheema, Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb, Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar, Minister of State for Finance Ali Pervaiz Malik and relevant senior officers attended the meeting.