Renowned Economist Hafeez Pasha predicts that in the next two fiscal years, eight million people might go down below the poverty line.
During an exclusive interview with The News, Pasha said that one million Pakistanis have already lost their jobs, while four million have gone down the poverty line. Pasha also mentioned that the current financial year will end up with almost 7 percent budget deficit.
He said that since the GDP growth will stay in current and next financial years at about 3 percent and after that, it may grow to 4 percent, which will cause an increase in unemployment and about 8,000,000 people will go down below the poverty line.
To control inflation and the growing economic crisis, Pasha said that Pakistan can generate Rs100 million revenue via mobile cards. He also advised starting collecting income tax on Agriculture and also impose a property tax on immovable property.
He said that only Rs2 billion is collected per annum through an income tax on agriculture as against the income tax of Rs1,500 billion from the sectors of the economy. He also said that the water tax to expenditure ratio was 1:15 and the government needed to improve on it too.
Pasha said that there was a need for a sharp reduction in this deficit to almost 2 percent of the GDP by 2021-22.
In April, Pasha said that Pakistan’s external debt would increase to $120 billion in the next two years.
The reason for the increase he said will be due to Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)’s continuous borrowing of money from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and friendly nations e.g. China, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
During an exclusive interview with The News, Pasha said that one million Pakistanis have already lost their jobs, while four million have gone down the poverty line. Pasha also mentioned that the current financial year will end up with almost 7 percent budget deficit.
He said that since the GDP growth will stay in current and next financial years at about 3 percent and after that, it may grow to 4 percent, which will cause an increase in unemployment and about 8,000,000 people will go down below the poverty line.
To control inflation and the growing economic crisis, Pasha said that Pakistan can generate Rs100 million revenue via mobile cards. He also advised starting collecting income tax on Agriculture and also impose a property tax on immovable property.
He said that only Rs2 billion is collected per annum through an income tax on agriculture as against the income tax of Rs1,500 billion from the sectors of the economy. He also said that the water tax to expenditure ratio was 1:15 and the government needed to improve on it too.
Pasha said that there was a need for a sharp reduction in this deficit to almost 2 percent of the GDP by 2021-22.
In April, Pasha said that Pakistan’s external debt would increase to $120 billion in the next two years.
The reason for the increase he said will be due to Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)’s continuous borrowing of money from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and friendly nations e.g. China, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).