ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Finance and Revenue Shaukat Tarin Thursday said the current challenging economic situation being faced by the country was the result of wrong policies of the last Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government, which had caused a loss of $20 billion.

Talking to media along with Minister for Energy Hammad Azhar and Minister for Economic Affairs Khusro Bakhtiyar in Islamabad today (Thursday), he said that the current government inherited an economy in a shambles, with high inflation and massive circular debt due to bad decisions of the PML-N regime, he said .

Tarin said the government had to approach the International Monetary Fund to support the deteriorated economy and accept tough conditions such as high power tariffs.

However, now the government’s focus was on providing relief to the masses in the upcoming budget 2021-22 and that was why it was conveyed to the IMF in recent talks that the electricity and gas prices would not be increased, he added.

He said former finance minister Miftah Ismail of the PML-N, during his tenure, had raised the petroleum development levy up to Rs 30, while the present government had reduced it by Rs 2 to 3.

Today the circular debt was declining and the government would take more steps to further reduce it, he added.

The minister said it was the government’s top priority to alleviate poverty, by promoting skills development practices among 4 million families, besides providing them housing facilities and health cards.

Shaukat Tarin said that government aims at enhancing revenue collection up to seven trillion rupees by the end of its constitutional term in 2023.

The Finance Minister expressed the hope to achieve a target of revenue collection up to 4700 billion rupees whereas this target will be 5.8 trillion rupees next year.

He said despite Covid-19 pandemic, the government remained successful in bringing the economic growth rate close to four percent.

He said the growth rate will likely to remain around five percent during the next fiscal year.

The Finance Minister said the government does not believe in imposing new taxes to enhance revenue collection and the objective for higher collections will be achieved through expanding the tax net.

Shaukat Tarin said we have decided to increase Public Sector Development Program by 38 percent.

He said we are also working to initiate the process of restructuring and privatization of loss making state owned enterprises.

Meanwhle, chairing two separate meetings through video link with the representatives of the Karachi Chambers of Commerce and Industry and Auto Industry of Pakistan in Islamabad today, Shaukat Tarin said government is cognizant of the issues of the business community.

He said the upcoming budget will play a major role in export promotion and increasing the footprint of small and medium businesses in the economy.