Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: It was rubbish to say that the budget was IMF dictated, jibed the Adviser to Prime Minister on Finance Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh on Saturday while reiterating that Pakistan’s grim economic situation demanded sacrifices. “Either we could abandon the pursuit or redouble efforts, we have redoubled the efforts,” said Shaikh while addressing the post budget seminar, arranged by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Pakistan.

The adviser said that Pakistan has never sustained high periods of economic growth for a longer time. He said that as a nation we do not like to do business with other nations and “countries cannot develop on their own”. The adviser once again reiterated that Pakistan did not have a choice but to stabilise the economy, which was the only solution to the grim situation.

Shaikh said that people should not believe “in crap” that the budget has been made on the dictation of the IMF. He said that there was no other option but to give a challenging revenue collection task to the FBR to meet the requirements of growing interest payments that been budgeted at Rs2.9 trillion in the next fiscal year.

Also speaking on the occasion, Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) Chairman Shabbar Zaidi claimed that the government did not make budget on IMF dictation. “We have tried to correct past mistakes and it’s an allegation that budget is made on some institution’s dictation,” said Zaidi.

Zaidi vowed that the FBR can achieve its challenging tax collection target.
“China’s Ambassador to Pakistan has also appreciated our budget and told me yesterday that businessmen were in trouble and that’s sign that it is a good budget,” he remarked. The FBR chairman said that it’s correct that tax collection target was high but there was also potential that had not been tapped.