Govt takes tangible measures to consolidate economy
ISLAMABAD: Finance Minister Naveed Qamar has said despite challenges, the government has taken tangible measures to consolidate the economy and attract foreign investment. Talking to newsmen in Islamabad on Friday, he said economic indicators are positive during the last two months the foreign direct investment has increased significantly besides record foreign remittances and tax collection.
He said talks are underway with various donor agencies including Asian Development Bank and World Bank for the financing of various projects including water and power. The Asian Development Bank is expected to release a tranche of five hundred million dollars within the next few days and the bank has also promised to double this aid, besides the World Bank would also release 1.5 billion dollars under various heads.
Naveed Qamar said the foreign donor agencies have lauded the policies and the difficult decisions were taken by the government for the strengthening of the economy and expressed the confidence that the policies would help put the economy on the sound track. When asked about the possibility of slashing the prices of petroleum products, the Finance Minister pointed out that the government has already reduced the prices of CNG while subsidy is already being given on other petroleum products including diesel.
About the launching of Benazir Income Support programme, Naveed Qamar said we have acquired the data of deserving people from NADRA and the programme would be launched in the month of September. Responding to a question about the imposition of regulatory duty on 379 items, he said that the duty has been imposed on luxury items and it will not affect the poor people. He clarified the duty has not been imposed on the items coming from China.
Earlier, addressing the E-Services project launching ceremony of Security and Exchange commission of Pakistan, the Finance Minister said Market support fund has been launched to provide necessary support to the capital markets. He assured to take further steps to ensure upward trend in the markets.
Chairman SECP Razi ur Rehman, in his welcome address, said the commission has introduced various reforms to strengthen the stock market and the launching of E-services project is a step further in that direction. He said through this project, the commission is progressing towards the provision of online services to facilitate the corporate sector. The project will facilitate the companies for online registration and submission of their annual, quarterly and monthly returns. The Chairman said it will ensure transparency, efficciency and effectiveness of the business processes of SECP and make it easier for the companies to interact with it.-SANA
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