Article Type

Article

Description

The budget announced yesterday did not contain any surprises and was, as usual, an accounting statement of the revenues and expenditures of the federal government.

In so far as the content of economic policies and institutional changes was concerned, it made four departures from the past.

First, the federal excise duties are going to be phased out in the next three years and a beginning has been made in this year’s budget. Second, the exemptions and concessions in the tax regime available for a wide variety of activities without any coherence are being abolished, minimising some of the distortions and mobilising foregone revenues. Third, the direct tax base was being enlarged by bringing in a significant number of potential taxpayers into the tax net through stronger enforcement—something which we haven’t seen in our long history. However, there is no estimate as to how much would be collected from this particular move. Finally, if it is really implemented, the allocations to accelerate the pace of projects that are near completion in the public sector development programme (PSDP) would bring forward some of the benefits that have been postponed for a long time. All these are welcome initiatives and if they get firmly rooted in our implementation culture, we would have made headway.

Publication Source

The Express tribune

Publication Date

6-5-2011

Pages

1-2

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