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Express Tribune
5 days ago
- Health
- Express Tribune
Mother, child hospital gift of Japan to Sindh's people: envoy
The Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah, who inaugurated a mother and child health facility in Jamshoro district on Friday, has boasted that emergency pediatric healthcare units presently existed within 30 minutes reach in the province. "Today, every child in Sindh is within a 30-minute reach of emergency care," the CM said at the inaugural of the new 128-bed facility at Liaquat University Hospital in Jamshoro. "This was unthinkable just a few years ago." Japanese Ambassador Shoichi Okamoto and Sindh Health Minister Dr Azra Fazal Pechuho were also present on the occasion. Construction of the hospital, which has expanded the LUH's total number of beds to 856, began in July, 2018. It has been completed with the support of Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) after a span of seven years at the cost of Rs331 million. The facility will, however, open its doors for the patients after a week. The CM acknowledged Japanese ambassador Okamoto and JICA for their consistent support in Sindh's healthcare reforms, especially during challenging times. A new maternal and child health center has opened at Liaquat University of Medical and Health Sciences (LUMHS) at Jamsho, the regional hub hospital in Hyderabad, with a Japanese grant of about 4.1 billion yen. The center includes obstetrics and pediatrics departments, a labor room, obstetrics ward, neonatal and maternal-fetal intensive care units, a laboratory, and outpatient consultation rooms, along with medical equipment like incubators and ultrasound devices. This project will benefit around 3.5 million people living in Hyderabad and Jamshoro. Japanese Ambasador Shuichi Akamatsu said: "This facility will bring medical services closer to home and provides mothers and babies with the timely and quality healthcare they deserve. We strongly hope that this new center will be effectively utilized in a sustainable manner." JICA Pakistan Chief Naoaki Miyata said that this project will achieve its goal of reducing the mother and child mortality and better accessibility to quality health care services. CM meets US Chargé d'Affaires CM Murad Ali Shah and the US Chargé d'Affaires Elizabeth Horst in a meeting on Friday reviewed completed initiatives and explored future collaboration opportunities in the fields of education, water and sanitation, health, climate resilience, and municipal services. He sought co-financing with USAID for constructing new Basic Health Units (BHUs), Rural Health Centres (RHCs), and Mother & Child Health Centres in underserved areas. Horst acknowledged the Sindh government's proactive role and reiterated the US' commitment to supporting Pakistan's sustainable development. World Bank team CM Murad met with a high-level World Bank delegation led by Regional VP Ousmane Dione to discuss ongoing development projects worth $4.012 billion. He presented a zone-specific WASH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene) strategy based on climate and water availability. It uses AI mapping, drone surveys, and geo-tagging to design solutions across six zones. Treated wastewater will support mini forests and livelihoods. Murad flagged project delays due to the absence of a dedicated procurement specialist in Karachi following Uzma Sadaf's passing. He urged the bank to fill the vacancy and expedite processes. He requested an additional $170 million for the Karachi Urban Mobility Project (KUMP) and urged quick approval of the Project Operations Manual for KWSSIP-II before the August 2025 deadline. Extensions were also sought for SELECT (until April 2027) and Social Protection Delivery projects (until December 2028). The World Bank delegation, including Country Director Bolormaa Amgaabazar, acknowledged the concerns and reaffirmed support for Sindh's development priorities.
Express Tribune
27-03-2025
- Business
- Express Tribune
Govt policies prove detractors wrong: PM
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Wednesday hailed the successful conclusion of a staff-level agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a new US$ 1.3 billion arrangement, commending the government economic team for their tireless efforts in securing the deal. Chairing the Cabinet Committee meeting here, the prime minister commended the collective efforts of the Deputy Prime Minister, Finance Minister, Planning Minister, Commerce Minister, Economic Affairs Minister, FBR Chairman and other key members of the economic team for their diligent work in securing the IMF agreement. He reflected on the skepticism from opponents, who had predicted that a mini-budget would be necessary to secure the deal. However, the prime minister asserted that the agreement was achieved without the need for additional taxation measures, proving the government's resolve and planning. The prime minister also acknowledged the hardships faced by the common people who bore the burden of price hike during the process of achieving economic stability. Besides, he paid tribute to the salaried persons who contributed a major portion in tax collection. The salaried class paid a colossal Rs331 billion in income tax in just eight months of this fiscal year higher by Rs120 billion or 56%. The government will receive $1.3 billion from the IMF, which will bolster Pakistan's foreign reserves to $8.3 billion, the prime minister said, terming it a big achievement to stabilize the county's economy. He also highlighted the contributions of all the provincial governments and their relevant chief ministers in supporting the federal government in securing the IMF agreement. Highlighting the government's success in surpassing tax collection targets, he said the IMF had aimed for a 10.2% tax-to-GDP ratio, but with strong performance from the economic team, the tax-to-GDP ratio had reached 10.6%, marking the highest achievement in the last four years. "This performance reflects a 26% increase in tax collection so far," he added. "Pakistan's tax collection target for the year 2024-25 was set at Rs 12.9 trillion, and despite the IMF initially suggesting a downward revision of this target, I personally insisted on maintaining the original figure. Following successful negotiations, the target which was initially revised down to Rs 12.1 trillion was adjusted to Rs 12.3 trillion," the prime minister added. He underscored that the government had planned to fast-track the cases relating to taxes pending in the tribunals worth billions of rupees and informed that as a result of this decision, the government had recovered Rs34 billion. Similarly, he said the faceless interaction in Karachi was successfully ongoing while process of hiring of international corporate lawyers was underway. Due to the government's reforms in sugar sector, the prime minister said Rs12 billion more taxes were collected this year as compared to the last year and hoped that Rs60 billion in total will be collected this year. "This model will be replicated in cement, tobacco and textile sectors soon," he added. As regards, Ramazan Package, the prime minister emphasized that unlike in the past, the government had introduced a new digital wallet system to disburse amount to the deserving families through a transparent way. The prime minister emphasised the importance of maintaining peace and eradicating terrorism as key pillars for the country's development. He underlined that peace was directly linked with economic progress and prosperity. He also hailed the conferment of Nishan-i-Pakistan by President Asif Ali Zardari to Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, recognising his significant contributions to the nation. The prime minister also expressed condolences over the demise of the mother of Chief of Army Staff General Syed Asim Munir, praying for eternal peace of the departed soul. The cabinet offered Fateha for the deceased.
Express Tribune
25-03-2025
- Business
- Express Tribune
Overburdened with taxes
Listen to article The federal government's push to achieve macroeconomic stability continues to take its toll on the salaried class thanks to an unfair distribution of the tax burden across different segments of society and various sectors of the economy. According to the available data, the taxmen have collected a staggering Rs331 billion worth of income tax from the salaried class in the first eight months of the ongoing fiscal year. In contrast, the retailers, most of whom are unregistered, contributed a mere Rs23 billion in the same period in terms of withholding income tax. Thus, the salaried individuals contributed 1,350% more in taxes than the retailers, even though there is no dearth of retailers who are making much more than those in the highest monthly wage bracket. While the amount of income tax paid by exporters so far this year is not known, the figures for the previous fiscal year show that they paid a meagre Rs93.5 billion in taxes on an income of $30.6 billion, as against Rs368 billion contributed by salaried individuals in the same period. This means that this affluent segment of society contributed only a quarter of what the white-collar salaried workforce did. Still, the tax contribution from salaried individuals – which is far higher than should be due and far bigger than their capacity – is not enough for the rulers to seek relief for them from the IMF. A case in point is the rejection by the global lender of what was going to be a Pakistan Day gift to the nation in the form of a substantial Rs8 per unit cut in the power tariff. Before that an expected Rs14 per litre drop in the petrol price was held back too. But the poor salaried class continues to pay the price of being the only source of guaranteed revenues for the FBR. This speaks of the incompetence, inability and complicity of the tax collectors as regards extracting the due amount of tax from the big fish – even though they were only recently given a Rs32.5 billion package of incentives by the government meant to act as performance booster. And their performance is there for all to see!
Express Tribune
24-03-2025
- Business
- Express Tribune
Salaried class coughs up Rs331b in taxes
The salaried class paid staggering Rs331 billion income tax in the eight months of the current fiscal, which is 1,350% more than the taxes paid by retailers, but still not enough for the government to seek relief from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for the marginalised segment. The total income tax contributions by the salaried people during July-February period of this fiscal year were Rs120 billion or 56% higher than Rs211 billion collected during the same period of the last fiscal year. The government of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had targeted the collection of Rs75 billion additional from the salaried class for the full fiscal year 2024-25. The figure is already Rs120 billion higher and still four months are remaining in the close of the fiscal year. In the last year, the salaried class paid Rs368 billion in taxes. But despite this backbreaking burden on the salaried people, who pay taxes on the gross income without adjusting expenditures, the government did not take up the issue of lessening this burden with the IMF during the recently held talks. There were no discussions with the IMF to lower the tax burden of the salaried class, sources said. When contacted, FBR Spokesperson Dr Najeeb Memon said that the government would review the taxes on the salaried class in the upcoming budget exercise. In contrast to Rs331 billion paid by the salaried persons, the retailers, mostly unregistered, contributed merely Rs23 billion on account of withholding income tax on their purchases. The amount of tax that the traders paid under section 236-H was 1,350% less than the taxes paid by the salaried persons. The wholesalers and distributors also paid Rs16 billion withholding tax in eight months and ironic though almost half of them were unregistered with the FBR, said the sources. In the budget, the government had imposed 2.5% withholding tax on the traders in the hope that this would force them to come in the tax system. The increase in the rate did help collect Rs12 billion more from the traders but the intended objective could not be achieved. The traders passed on the cost of the additional tax to the end consumers. The government's Tajir Dost scheme to bring in 10 million traders in the net also failed badly and it has now stopped talking about it. The government was supposed to collect Rs50 billion from the retailers under the scheme, but it ended up collecting peanuts. The sources said that the FBR admitted before the IMF that the traders and the jewellers were the two hard nuts to crack. The FBR also confessed before the IMF that due to major design flaws, the Tajir Dost Scheme had failed. The IMF was briefed that the large traders also stopped the smaller ones from joining the scheme and as a result it could not expand the scheme to 43 cities. The FBR's plan to bring a minimum of 10 million retailers in the net had flopped, the IMF was told. The sources said that the Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb had asked the FBR to begin the exercise to review the salaried class taxation with an objective to provide some relief. However, no such discussions took place with the IMF. In last June, the government massively increased the tax burden of the salaried persons by reducing the number of slabs, which put abnormal burden on the middle and upper middle-income groups. The maximum 35% rate is now unfairly charged at Rs500,000 monthly income and a 10% surcharge is also imposed, which takes the total tax rate to 38.5% for the highest slab. Where the government did not feel the pain of the salaried persons, it tried to negotiate with the IMF to reduce the tax burden of the real estate sector. The IMF did not accept the government's demand and has, for now, kept the rates unchanged. The details showed that non-corporate sector employees paid Rs141 billion income tax this year, which is higher by Rs42 billion or 43%. The corporate sector employees paid Rs101 billion in income tax, also higher by Rs37 billion or 56%. The provincial governments' employees paid Rs57 billion, up Rs28 billion or 96%. The federal government employees paid Rs34 billion, again higher by Rs14 billion or 66%. For the current fiscal year, the IMF has given Rs12.97 trillion tax target to FBR, which has already sustained Rs605 billion shortfall in eight months despite collecting Rs331 billion from the salaried persons. For the month of March, the tax target is Rs1.220 trillion that the FBR is again going to miss by a wide margin. Till Sunday, the FBR had collected Rs515 billion, leaving it with a gigantic task of generating Rs704 billion within this week. Friday will be the last working day before Eid holidays.
