More tax collection, more relief for masses: PM Imran Khan

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan on Wednesday said that FBR had collected record tax in the history of Pakistan, promising to ‘spend as much money as we can on the poor’.

Addressing the ceremony of launching interest-free loans here, Prime Minister Imran Khan said that Pakistan was the name of a big dream and it had to become an ideal Islamic welfare state. “We had to make Pakistan stand on the principles of the State of Madina. A nation which deviates from its ideology never succeeds and our ideology was the ideology of the State of Madina which had two main things: one was humanity and the other was justice. That is, there should be no one above the law. Today, I am sorry to say that non-Muslim nations are following the principles of the State of Madina,” he remarked.

He, however, regretted that deviation from this ideology led the country facing several challenges regarding the well-being of common man. The prime minister said following the glowing teachings of Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him) regarding caring for the rights of people was the righteous pathway for a nation to adopt.

About the launch of the Rehmat-ul-Alamin Authority, the prime minister said that its purpose was to tell our children what the message of the Holy Prophet (PBUH) was.

PM Imran praised the performance of FBR and said, “For the first time in the history of Pakistan, we have collected so much tax and that is why I have announced relief the other day, while there has been increase in the price of energy and oil in the world. And, we are providing relief to the people.”

Referring to the interest-free loan programme, he said that this programme was initially started in some provinces and now the programme was being rolled out across the country. He appreciated the efforts of Dr Amjad, the organiser of the programme and said he understood the purpose of life that Allah rewards him in the hereafter who helps people in this world.

Talking about the programme, he said that our 4.5 million families are poor. Through this programme, people living in urban areas would be given an interest-free loan of Rs500,000 and Rs300,000 to those living in rural areas, whereas Rs2 million would be given to the citizens who want to build their own house.

The prime minister said that one member of the family would be given technical education so that he could learn skills and earn for himself. He said, “So far we have given up to Rs2.5 billion in interest-free loans to the people, in future we are going to give one thousand billion rupees more loans, and it will be further increased and the only purpose is that the people should stand on their own two feet.”

Referring to housing loans, the prime minister said that earlier banks did not lend to the poor, and only rich people could build houses, due to which slums are growing in our country. He said, “About 40 percent of Karachi has turned into slums which are increasing in every city, so we got help from banks and now the salaried class living in rented house will now be in their own house and pay installments.”

PM Imran reiterated the importance of health card and said that this initiative had him proud as it could cure every poor citizen of the country. The prime minister said, “We have embarked on the path which was envisioned by Allama Iqbal and this is the path of greatness of Pakistan.”

Prime Minister Imran Khan on Wednesday said Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) had successfully knocked down February’s revenue target of Rs441 billion, posting a robust growth of 28.5 percent, enabling the government to subsidise petrol, diesel and electricity and give relief to people.

Prime Minister in a message on his Twitter account said, “FBR has successfully knocked down Feb revenue target of Rs441 billion, posting robust growth of 28.5 percent and up to the month of growth of over 30 percent. Because of this performance of FBR, we are able to subsidise petrol, diesel and electricity and give relief to our people”.

Separately, Prime Minister Imran Khan said securing life and property of people was the government’s utmost priority, adding the launch of a universal emergency helpline in the country would be a one-stop emergency relief point for people in crisis.

He expressed these views while presiding over a review meeting on Pakistan Emergency Helpline (PEHEL)-911. Earlier, the Prime Minister was briefed that all the 36 individual emergency numbers for the provision of emergency services like fire brigade, police, health assistance, disaster recovery and motorway police etc would be integrated into Pakistan Emergency Helpline (PEHEL)-911.

“A needy person will have to dial just 911 and the call centre will forward his call to relevant government agency. As a part of Digital Pakistan Initiative, this project is a joint venture of Ministry of Information Technology & Telecommunication and Ministry of Interior.

National Telecommunication Corporation (NTC) and National Information Technology Board (NITB) of IT Ministry will provide necessary technical assistance and backend infrastructure for the smooth execution of the project, whereas Interior Ministry is responsible for coordination among various emergency response services at the federal and provincial levels.

Prime Minister directed all the authorities concerned to take all necessary measures to ensure hiccup-free operations of the helpline through trial run and soft launch before its actual launch in the holy month of Ramazan.

The meeting was attended by SAPM on Political Communication Dr Shehbaz Gill, Chairman National Telecommunication Corporation (NTC) Engr Miraj Gul, ED National Information Technology Board (NITB) Syed Hussnain Abbas Kazmi and other senior officers concerned.

Chief Secretaries Punjab, Sindh, KP, Balochistan, GB and AJK joined the meeting via video link. Earlier, in a tweet, the prime minster said to facilitate the citizens as Nadra had expanded its outreach by opening 88 new registration centres including in tehsils where no centre existed before. The spread of the new centres as is: Balochistan 13, Sindh 23, KPK 16, GB 11, Punjab 11, AJK 12 and 1 each in Islamabad and Rawalpindi.