LAHORE:Provincial Minister for Finance Minister Makhdoom Hashim Jawan Bakht said on Thursday that Punjab government was taking initiatives to widen the range of indigenous resources for economic development of the province, besides investment in vital sectors such as education, health, agriculture and environment.
“The business friendly policies of the government will lead the province towards self-reliance”,he expressed with confidence.
The minister said that reforms in tax system and promotion of modern trends introduced by the government were showing dividends.”The government will ensure implementation of the long-term reform agenda for economic stability of the province”. He expressed these views in a meeting with the IMF Country Representative for Pakistan Esther Perez Ruiz here at the Civil Secretariat.
Finance minister added that the major component of the provincial revenue was collected from tax on the provision of services. In addition, property tax is also a part of the provincial revenue,he said.
The Punjab government is working with the federal government to increase government’s revenue generation. “Reforms are also being introduced for public-private partnership projects. Subsidies are being provided under the federal government’s Ehsas Ration Programme to control inflation and increase purchasing power of common man”, he elaborated.
To a query by Esther Perez Ruiz regarding transparency in the distribution of Ehsas Program subsidy, the minister explained that indicators for measuring poverty were set to identify genuinely deserving families to facilitate them through Ehsas programme, adding access to cell phones for direct cash transfers was rendered mandatory for eligible individuals in the Programme.
Hashim Bakht highlighted some of the revolutionary initiatives of present government in the field of health, long term reform policies for mother and child health, as well as control of malnutrition in the province.
Secretary Finance briefed the meeting about strategies for the implementation of reform policies. He said that keeping in view the success of the online application e-pay for government collections, the Punjab government decided to encourage payments through credit and debit cards. He said the government after the taxation system reforms was also working to upgrade the procurement mechanism.
The IMF representative Esther Perez Ruiz appreciated the measures and initiatives being taken by the Punjab government and assured complete cooperation from the IMF.932