ISLAMABAD – Federal Finance Minister Ishaq Dar has said that continuous growth in revenue collection has helped in reducing the fiscal deficit from 8.8 percent to 4.45 percent during the past three years.
He was addressing a function held in Islamabad to congratulate FBR team for achieving revenue collection target of 3404 billion rupees during the last fiscal year.
Ishaq Dar urged the FBR team to do more for achieving another target of 3621 billion rupees during the current financial year.
He said more work is needed to be done in information technology sector and mitigating the leakages besides making the Sales Tax system a robust one.
The Finance Minister said Pakistan’s rank scoring has not only gone up from negative to stable but is now ranked as positive by international institutions.
Ishaq Dar said investment ratio to GDP has also increased from 12.6 percent to 15.6 percent which would further be enhanced to about 21 per cent.
Meanwhile, talking to a delegation of the Abu Dhabi Group, led by Group Chairman Sheikh Nahyan Bin Mubarak Al Nahyan in Islamabad, the Finance Minister said the government welcomes foreign investment which would facilitate achievement of the objective of higher sustainable economic growth.
He also welcomed the merger of Pakistan Mobile Communications Limited and Warid Telecom which is likely to be finalized soon.
Ishaq Dar said the merger is a proof of the strength gained by Pakistan’s economy and the business opportunities for prospective investors.
Sheikh Nahyan Bin Mubarak Al Nahyan on this occasion said Pakistan has become an attractive investment destination due to the turnaround in its economy.
