Finmin Aurangzeb says govt committed to reducing tax burden by widening tax net

Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb on Friday said. the government was committed to reducing the disproportionate tax burden on certain classes by widening the tax net.

Speaking on theGeo Newsprogramme ‘Aaj Shahzeb Khanzada Kay Saath’ following theunveilingof a Rs18.8 trillion budget for the next fiscal year, Aurangzeb said: “Exporters, manufacturers, the IT sector, construction. the salaried class — we tried to give them relief. Now the direction of travel is identified,. we will continue working to reduce the disproportionate tax burden by widening our tax net.”

Responding to a question regarding practical measures to expand the tax net. ensure compliance, the finance minister said that the government needs to adopt a twofold strategy: tax deepening and broadening.

“By deepening, I mean that we need to fix leakages, fight corruption and tax evasion through compliance and enforcement. I believe we will get huge upside through this,” he said.

“The government also needs to structurally move forward in order to broaden its tax net,” he added.

Talking about the provinces’ share. proposed reduction in development funds, Aurangzeb said that two provinces of Pakistan — Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan — were undergoing internal disorder, adding: “It was necessary to empower security forces and especially the civil armed forces; that’s why we asked provinces to contribute.”

The finance minister also thanked all provincial governments for their cooperation with the federal government in taking strategic measures.

Meanwhile, Aurangzeb emphasised that the government did not announce new taxes for the next fiscal year.

Aurangzeb said he was aware of the challenges faced by the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR). was working on replacing traditional workflows with AI-led mechanisms with “zero human intervention”.

Talking about the ongoing conflict involving the United States, Israel. Iran, the finance minister said he was hopeful that the efforts made by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Field Marshal Asim Munir would be successful. However, he added that the economic impact of the conflict would continue into the next fiscal year.

During the presentation of the budget in the National Assembly earlier today, the minister said the budget for the coming year had been prepared with a “clear. purposeful” strategy, and that the top priority was to increase production capacity and promote exports.

“For this reason, we are giving tax concessions to large industries. are providing resources to exporters through the Export Financing Scheme,” he added.

The finance minister said the government was also focused on increasing revenues through tax enforcement. compliance rather than increasing the tax burden on the people. “For this purpose, we are making changes to the compliance. enforcement mechanism and carrying out reforms in the FBR,” he said.