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ISLAMABAD: Adviser to Prime Minister on Finance and Revenue Shaukat Tarin on Monday asserted that the federal government would bring back Pakistan’s past economic glory when Pakistan was one of the four largest economies in Asia.
“In 1960s, we were counted with economies like China and Japan, when we were economically strong,” the adviser said while addressing a Kamyab Jawan Convention’ jointly Organized by Islamabad Chamber of Commerce (ICCI) and Kamyab Jawan Program in Islamabad.
Tarin pointed out that the government was focusing on human resource capital and Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs), which would be the government’s top priority. “Raising the tax-to-Gross Domestic Product (GDP) ratio to 20% could improve the country’s growth rate and provide employment opportunities to the youth,” he added.
Tarin said the current tax-to-GDP tax rate in Pakistan was 9%, which he said was very low and needed to be doubled to 20%. “There is no way out without paying taxes because we use the resources of this country, so taxes are obligatory on all sections,” he added.
He said that no one has the right to use national resources without paying taxes. “The government was working hard on human capital and interest-free loans and skills development courses for young people, agricultural loans, home loans in easy installments and health cards are steps in this direction,” he added.
It is the vision of Prime Minister Imran Khan to extend every possible facilitation to the youth so that they can better serve the nation, Tarin said, adding that the Kamyab Jawan Program has been started with the same purpose – to exploit the potential of the youth.
