Press Releases

A meeting of the Tariff Policy Board was held at Ministry of Commerce, Islamabad which was chaired by the Advisor to Prime Minister on Commerce & Investment Abdul Razak Dawood. In the meeting, Customs Tariff related proposals for the upcoming federal budget for fiscal year 2020-2021 were discussed. The meeting also discussed the economic impact of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic and deliberated upon ways and means to avert the financial losses to the businesses. The Advisor to Prime Minister on Commerce and Investment desired that due to negative impact of Covid-19 emergency on the economy, it is imperative to devise policies for growth and progress of all sectors of the economy. He emphasized that a Win Win situation for everyone including the government exchequer should be created. He pointed out that better collection of direct taxes will make room for providing relief to the formal documented sectors of economy by reducing indirect taxes like Sales Tax. The participants vowed to..

Adviser to the Prime Minister on Finance and Revenue Dr. Abdul Hafeez Shaikh has emphasized the need for better coordination among the stakeholders for arriving at consensus on targets of macro-economic variables and the required policy actions to achieve them. He further stressed that all organs of the state should play their role in this difficult time to fully capitalize their potential to achieve set macro-economic targets as per their mandate. He was chairing a meeting of the Monetary and Fiscal Policies Co-ordination Board held at the Finance Division today. Other members of the Board present in the meeting were the Adviser to PM on Commerce and Investment, Deputy Chairman Planning Commission, Finance Secretary, Governor SBP and Dr. Asad Zaman. Chairperson FBR also attended the meeting on special invitation. The Finance Minister in his opening remarks stated that this high powered Board facilitates the policy makers to review and coordinate in an effective manner to adopt a co..

Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) has approved four major projects at a cost of nearly Rs. 250 billion in a meeting held today at the Cabinet Block with Adviser to the Prime Minister on Finance and Revenue Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh in the chair. The meeting discussed a proposal for the construction of the Lodhran-Multan Section (North Bound 62 kms) of N-5 and construction of 2 flyovers at Railways Crossing at Lodhran Bypass and approved the project at a cost of Rs. 12.434 billion. The project is to be completed in 24 months. 2 flyovers along with three interchanges at Super Chowk and Permit ChowkLodhran and an interchange at Bahawalpur Chowk Multan will also be built. Besides, four minor bridges, as well as reconstruction & widening of culverts and urban area improvement at BastiMalook, Multan City, and Larr Town, would also be carried out under the project. The reconstruction of existing two-lane northbound and construction of flyovers, interchanges, and ar..

The Economic Affairs Division (EAD) has stated that due to contraction in economic growth and fall in workers’ remittances, the unemployment in Pakistan will increase leading towards raise in poverty besides tightening of financial conditions, leading to complicated situation of external debt maturity refinancing. The Policy Analysis and Development Wing of the EAD has reviewed reports of international financial institutions (IFIs) on the Covid-19 and examined its impacts on Pakistan’s economy. The EAD Wing has concluded that the Covid-19 pandemic will have severe impacts on Pakistan’s economy. It further stated that the IFIs’ reports had not quantified the impacts of macroeconomic conditions on the general public. “We can foresee that due to contraction in economic growth, fall in worker’s remittances; unemployment in Pakistan will increase leading towards increase in poverty in Pakistan. It will continue to put pressure for increased social safety spending in near future even afte..

Prime minister Imran Khan on Thursday announced that the nationwide lockdown will be further eased with more industries and businesses allowed to resume operations under necessary SOPs. The decision, he said, was based on the virus situation in the country which is still stable compared to Europe, US, and other developed countries. The PM gave examples of Iran and Egypt that too had chosen to reopen economy while keeping public gatherings restricted. The premier shared that he had discussed the virus measures with Iranian and Egyptian leaderships while exchanging data and information for more informed decisions. He said that Pakistan’s virus statistics were much similar to Egypt’s which also had chosen to not let people die from starvation by opening all businesses. PM Imran stated that since no one knew how long the virus could last, it’s imperative that citizens maintain social distancing and follow preventive measures to keep the pandemic under control. “The outbreak can go fu..