ISLAMABAD, Aug 18 (APP):After daring political and economic challenges, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government on Sunday came out with its first ever yearly performance report showing advancement in different sectors and dispensing hopes to masses of good days ahead.
During its first year in power completing on Sunday (August 18), the government came across the major issues of cleansing society of corruption, economic revival, trade, energy production, poverty alleviation, accommodation and financial assistance to the poor, revenue collection and above all the Kashmir issue.
Though the journey was on a bumpy road, yet Prime Minister Imran Khan and his team burnt the midnight oil to steer the nation through difficult times and reach a destination promised to the people in the party’s manifesto during election campaign.
Special Assistant to the Prime Minister (SAPM) on Information and Broadcasting Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan along with SAPM on Political Affairs Naeemul Haque, Adviser to PM on Media Yousaf Baig Mirza, PTI Chief Organizer Saifullah Niazi and Speaker AJK Legislative Assembly Shah Ghulam Qadir formally launched the report here at the PM Secretariat.
According to the report, the Board of Investment (BOI) held its board’s 8th and Board of Approvals’ 4th meeting, headed by Prime Minister Imran Khan, which granted approval to the first China Pakistan Economic Corridor’s Special Economic Zone (SEZ) at Rashakai, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
The BOI also processed firm approval of five SEZs in Punjab, and okayed two SEZs in Balochistan, two in Punjab and one in Sindh, which would be notified after completing codal formalities.
Due to effective policies, Pakistan’s ranking in World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business Index had improved from 147th in 2018 to 136th in 2019, which is expected to further improve several places in the next report.
Under the Ease of Doing Business reforms, the BOI introduced a policy under which a company would now be able to get itself registered in just a single day for starting business.
It reduced timeframe to issue construction permits from 260 to 92 days in Karachi, while 266 to 70 days in Lahore, whereas, electricity connection time limit has been brought down from 185 days to 120 in Karachi and 117 days to 95 in Lahore.
The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) collected Rs 234 billion taxes during the month of July 2019 by its IR-Operations Wing against the target of Rs 236 billion which was 99.2 percent of the assigned target. The collection of IR domestic taxes in July 2019 has shown an increase of 60 percent compared to collection of July 2018.
After the government created awareness among the masses about filing returns to fulfill national duty, the filing of income returns for the tax year 2018 had reached the total number of 2,404,371 as compared to 1,486,756 returns filed for the tax year 2017 indicating a growth of 62 percent over the last year.
