(20 December 2017)
President Pakistan Businessmen and Intellectuals Forum (PBIF), President AKIA, Senior Vice Chairman of the Businessmen Panel of FPCCI and former provincial minister Mian Zahid Hussain on Wednesday said the government will miss the target of six (06) percent growth in the GDP.
The government will hardly achieve the growth rate of 5.6 percent while the target of fiscal deficit will also be missed, the former minister said.
He said that the target for fiscal deficit for the ongoing fiscal year was set at 4.1 percent which will be missed widely despite some betterment in tax collection, reduction in expenditures and discouraging imports, etc.
Mian Zahid Hussain said that last year’s deficit target was set at 3.8 percent which jumped to 5.8 percent resulted in serious problems as FBR could not achieve the target of 20 percent tax collection despite the IMF’s claim that 22 percent tax collection should not be a problem.
FBR should not burden the existing taxpayers and try to find the new ones which are in million in the country, he said, adding that the state-run entities which are inflicting heavy losses on the exchequer should be sold without further delay.
The veteran business leader warned that further delay in introducing reforms, curtailing imports, improving exports and controlling twin deficits will push the country towards another crisis which can be resolved through another bailout by IMF or costly borrowing from international debt market which will damage the economy.
