Islamabad, July 04, 2019: Advisor to Prime Minister on Finance, Abdul Hafeez Sheikh Thursday said that record 137,000 people declared their assets and deposited taxes worth Rs 70 billion under the Asset Declaration Scheme which expired on July 3.
This is the biggest number of beneficiaries in a single scheme in Pakistan’s history which made it unique to other schemes in which the people also declared their assets worth of over Rs 3000 billion, he said while addressing a press conference flanked by Minister for Revenue Hammad Azhar and Chairman Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) Shabbar Zaidi.
With regard to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) approval of $6 billion loans for Pakistan, the Advisor said the decision was important in the sense that the international powers and institutions were now expressing satisfaction over Pakistan as the government had conveyed a message that being a responsible country, it was maintaining the fiscal discipline, mobilizing taxes and taking difficult decision to strengthen its economy.
He said with the approval of bailout package by the IMF, other international institutions had now started releasing funds for the country.
“The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is willing to extend an additional $3.4 billion loan out of which $2.1 billion was likely to be received during the current year,” he said hoping to get even more funds from the Bank.
Similarly, he said the World Bank was also ready to provide loans to Pakistan.
He clarified that these loans from ADB and WB would not be linked to any projects but for the purpose of budgetary support and general expenditures.
