Hafeez Shaikh calls for adopting economic roadmap

ISLAMABAD: Adviser to Prime Minister on Finance Abdul Hafeez Shaikh on Sunday chaired a meeting of a think tank to review the impact of coronavirus on the economy, businesses and common man in the country, ARY NEWS reported.

Speaking during the meeting, Hafeez Shaikh said that they had to learn from international experiments regarding monetary and other policies.

“There should be an economic road map detailing the responsibilities everyone had to perform,” he said.

The think tank also proposed six domains in which work should be carried out to move the economy during the pandemic including construction of small houses, food security sector, supply chain safety and increase in the role of banking sector.

It was also decided to raise the issue of change in rate of sales tax and other financial issues with the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR).

During the last meeting of the think tank, the participants stressed upon the need to bring reforms in monetary, banking and financial affairs and small and medium enterprises (SME) sector. The meeting also emphasized on the need to bring improvement in large scale businesses, social safety net, health sector and private sector.

The adviser briefed the participants on the debt relief plan approved at the G-20 forum amid global coronavirus pandmeic. He said that under the plan, United States Dollar (USD) 1.80 billion debt payment could be postponed for a year.

“We have received an emergency funding of $1.40 billion from International Monetary Fund (IMF),” Hafeez Shaikh said as the participants called for a further decline in the interest rate.

The meeting also called for transferring advantage of low global fuel price to the masses other than facilitating the lower segments and small businesses at the time of the pandemic.

It was informed that the decision on achieving difficult FBR tax targets was postponed and would be taken after further deliberations.

The meeting was also briefed on the relief package provided to the masses under the Ehsaas programme.