Finance Minister Muhammad Auranzeb during his engagements and meetings in Washington D.C gave an interview to foreign news agency and pinned hope of getting a new loan program of $6 to $8 billion for the period of three years.
He addressed to the Atlantic Council and Pakistani-American citizens community in Washington.
The finance minister promised to get a new loan program from the IMF soon.
“Talks with the international lender IMF are at an early stage but we are determined to implement the agenda of economic reforms through difficult decisions,” he said.
“We need two to three years to undergo real reforms with an indication of future tax exemptions or bringing low-taxing sectors into the tax net. We need to bring low tax and tax free sectors under the tax ambit,” he added.
“The aim is to agree on priorities with the IMF. Retail, wholesale and agriculture are contributing 20 percent to the GDP. The share of direct tax is one percent so it cannot be sustainable,” Muhammad Aurangzeb said expressing his desire to increase trade with the US and China.
He declared the privatization of government institutions as a ‘priority’. “PIA will be privatized first, the target is to complete the transaction by June,” he added.
Finance Minister also met with influential Pakistani American businessmen in Washington and ordered the overseas Pakistani to invest in key sectors including agriculture, IT, industry and energy.
Banker turned politician also assured to solve the problems faced by IT companies in Pakistan.
