Mini budget is ready: FBR chairman
ISLAMABAD: Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) Chairman, Dr Ashfaq Ahmad, has said the mini budget was ready and it can be presented on the direction of the federal government anytime.
The FBR chairman said this in his informal talk with the journalists here on Wednesday.
The FBR chairman said the government will abolish exemptions granted to a number of areas and it will ultimate help the goverment raise revenue more than agreed target. He said the government will not withdraw exemptions from food items and medicines. According to the FBR chief ,the government may announce massive increase in duty on import of luxury vehicles. The government had allowed import of luxurious vehicles in the budget 2021-22. It led to massive import of luxurious cars in the last five months to widen trade gap alarmingly.
Now feeling the heat of.massive import of luxurious cars and other unnecessary items, the government decided to choke down unnecessary imports like import of cars and other costly living items Shaukat Tarin, advisor to the prime minister on Finance , had announced last week that he would not allow further import of completely built units (CBU) of the cars as it was causing loss of much needed foreign exchange of Pakistan.
Earlier the day, spokesperson of the Finance ministry Muzamal Aslam, had conceded that in the given situation the government is left with no option, but to announce a mini budget. The mini budget is actually being prepared to meet conditionalties of the International Monetory Fund (IMF).