Finance Minister Ishaq Dar has said that the Prime Minister and the government will soon present a plan to reduce expenditure and that fixed tax has been imposed from Rs75,000 to Rs250,000 on business class of flights.
Talking about the supplementary finance bill, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar said that electricity theft and line losses and non-payment of bills are major problems, Rs1,450 billion is not being received, but the speed of collection is correct.
He said that the agreement with the IMF was not made by me but by the previous government, the previous government made an agreement with the IMF on strict conditions and then did not follow it, if they are imposing taxes of Rs170 billion, then they have tried to negotiate for the poor people.
The finance minister said that Rs360 billion had been allocated for the Benazir Income Support Program which has been increased by Rs40 billion.
Ishaq Dar said that our loans have increased by more than 70 percent, we held talks with IM for 10 days, line losses in the power sector are 1400 billion due to electricity theft, the cost of generating electricity is 3,000 billion.
He said that the FBR will meet its revenue targets, we convinced the IMF to pay taxes of Rs170 billion in negotiations, the previous government broke the economic discipline by signing an agreement with the IMF and when the no-confidence motion was presented, the IMF withdrew from the agreement.
Ishaq Dar said that the government has decided to increase the tax on shares, taxes had to be imposed due to the power sector in the supplementary financial budget. He said that 250,000 fixed taxes will be levied on business class tickets to Canada and the United States, 150,000 on business class tickets for Europe and 75,000 for the Middle East, while the duty on cigarettes will remain as announced in the Finance Bill.
