Digitization of economy a requisite for driving economic growth: Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb

ISLAMABAD, Nov 8 (SABAH): Federal Minister for Finance and Revenue Senator Muhammad Aurangzeb has described the digitization of economy as a key requisite for driving the economic growth and mobilizing ample resources for growing development needs and ending Pakistan’s reliance on persistent financing.

Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb made this statement during a meeting with a delegation of Veon Group at Finance Division on Friday. The delegation was led by Augie K. Fabela, founder and chairman of the Board Veon Group, while Kaan Terzioglu, Group CEO VEON, Ms. Marine Babayan, Group Director of Corporate Affairs VEON and Aamir Ibrahim, CEO Jazz, were also present.

During the meeting, the Minister reiterated the government’s resolve for tax reforms with a focus on people-processed technology and end-to-end digitalisation to enhance transparency, plug leakages and improve services. He described the use of data analytics as vital to have a fact-based discussion rather than harassment around FBR’s efforts for revenue generation and resource mobilisation.

He noted that for the current fiscal year, the federal tax revenues have increased by 29 per cent and 600,000 new filers have also been added to FBR’s system thus far, but we have a long way to go in our efforts to scale up the tax-to-GDP ratio, currently languishing at 8 to 9 per cent, to a decent 13.5 per cent by the time the IMF programme is completed.

Senator Muhammad Aurangzeb also reiterated the government’s resolve to move ahead with its privatisation programme, saying the government was clear that anything that could be done in the private sector, had to be handled by the private sector to allow it to drive the economy and be the engine of growth.

He pointed out that there was a real appetite amongst international investors and bilateral partners to invest in Pakistan. However, this appetite for foreign investment in Pakistan could only materialise through the private sector which had the potential, energy and drive to come up with bankable, investable projects for joint business ventures and collaborations with the foreign investors.