Budget 2020-21 to help fight pandemic, provide relief.

ISLAMABAD -- Adviser to Prime Minister on Finance and Revenue Abdul Hafeez Shaikh, on Saturday, hinted at bringing mini-budget in the months to come by saying that amendments could be made in certain areas if needed.

He said that the government could make amendments, as we should open minded. The government would monitor the budget throughout the next fiscal year and there would be a policy response when needed. Addressing a post budget press conference along with cabinet members and economic team, he said that government had reduced its expenditures and took tough decisions in the budget amid COVID-19 and the basic feature of the budget was no imposition of any new tax. The government enhanced the development budget by Rs100 billion for the next fiscal year.

Adviser to the Prime Minister on Finance and Revenue Abdul Hafeez Shaikh said that government would repay Rs2.9 trillion as interest payment on the loans taken by the previous governments in next fiscal year. Otherwise, the government would have spent this huge amount on poor segment of the society as the amount could increase Ehsaas Programme by 20 percent. He defended the government's borrowing by saying that the new loans were not to increase expenditures of the civilian government but to repay the loans taken by the previous governments.

Hafeez Shaikh said that the government had not imposed any new tax in the budget in order to provide relief to the people who suffered due to impact of COVID-19. However, the government reduced taxes for reducing cost of doing business, he said.

Sharing a few highlights of the budget, he said that the regulatory duty on 1,623 tariff lines of raw materials used in textile, chemical, rubber and other industries were totally withdrawn. He said that the government had also abolished ten types of withholding taxes. He said that massive relief had been given to different sectors, especially the construction. He said that the Capital Gains Tax was also halved while the federal excise duty on cement was reduced by 25 paisa. He said that sales tax for the retailers opting to link themselves with the FBR was being reduced to 12 percent from 14 percent. He said that the duty on hospitality sector was reduced from 1.5 percent to 0.5 percent. He said that taxes and duties were being abolished on the testing kits of coronavirus and cancer.

The Adviser informed that government had given relief to various sectors for creating job opportunities' in the country. He...