ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Federal Minister of Finance Asad Umar said on late Monday that the government will focus on six sectors to increase revenue and cut down the ongoing fiscal deficit in an effort to give a fresh drive to the country’s economy, local media reported.
Talking to local Urdu channel ARY News, Umar said the government has marked six areas of work, including exports, foreign investments, remittances from overseas Pakistanis, taxation, check on money laundering and tourism.
The minister said the government had already taken measures to revive the country’s problematic export-oriented industries.
“We have given a subsidy of 44 billion rupees (338 million U.S. dollars) in gas prices for the industries besides reducing tariffs on imported raw materials,” said the minister, adding that “in the coming days, we shall cut electricity prices for the industries to make them further competitive in the international market.”
The minister noted that following the initiatives taken by the government, several closed factories had been reopened for operations.
Umar also announced to provide special incentives to overseas Pakistanis living in different countries to increase their remittances from existing 20 billion U.S. dollars annually to 30 billion to 40 billion U.S. dollars.
Talking about the advantages the country has in terms of natural landscape as well as beautiful ancient sites, the financial chief vowed to promote the tourism industry to double the foreign visitors in the coming five years.
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