KARACHI, August 10(ABC): Federal Minister for Finance and Revenue Miftah Ismail Tuesday said that macro-economic stability will come along with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme resuming, which is expected to be finalised by the end of August as all conditionalities have been met.
During a meeting with the leadership of the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX), the finance minister said that the balance of payments position is now well under control. With increased hydel power, lower energy demand and lower oil prices, “Pakistan can even have a balance of payments surplus in coming months”.
Miftah, while commenting on the tax measures, said that fiscal discipline will be strictly followed and all additional expenditures will be fully funded by tax measures.
“Ten per cent super tax has been imposed for one year only while alternative revenue streams are developed,” he said, adding the “alternate dispute resolution (ADR) linked tax on banks will not be imposed retrospectively and tax revenues from the retail sector are expected to be significantly more as compared to last year.”
According to a statement issued by the stock market, the participants of the meeting held a discussion on the proposals presented by PSX to the finance minister for the sustainable development of the capital markets.
The participants told that among immediate steps that can be taken, increasing dividends by the profitable state-owned enterprises (SOEs) was one of them.
Presently, while some of the SOEs are extremely profitable, their payout ratio is a meagre 18%. The participants urged that this should be raised to 50%. The finance minister agreed and directed that a meeting be held immediately with the relevant ministry and all relevant stakeholders to consider this matter.