Info minister terms FY2027 budget 'relief-oriented'

Information Minister Attaullah Tarar on Wednesday termed the federal budget for the upcoming fiscal year “relief-oriented”.

He made the remarks while speaking to the media alongside State Minister for Finance Bilal Azhar Kayani. At the outset, the information minister said that certain segments were criticising for the sake of criticising.

“When Pakistan was on the brink of default … our macroeconomic indicators were at their lowest,” he said. He alleged that some government officials “went on holiday”, saying that they did not want the country to default during their tenure.

He recalled that at the time, no one was ready to work on the economy.

“In such a time, it was the leadership of PML-N which stepped in and stabilised the economy as per the vision of Nawaz Sharif,” he said, recalling that when Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif took charge of the government, several difficulties came up at the time as well.

He said that in the last two years, PM Shehbaz had always reassured the public that the government would provide relief whenever there is room for it.

“We did not just wait for room, but we created it through consistent effort and as per a home-grown plan,” he remarked.

At this, he said that the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) had two to three major problems — digitisation was stalled, officials were corrupt and posted through personal recommendations, and there was no coordinated tax collection system.

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