Former Finance Minister Miftah Ismail reacts to IMF demands | Breaking News
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Former Finance Minister Miftah Ismail reacts to IMF demands | Breaking News
Former Finance Minister Miftah Ismail reacts to IMF demands | Breaking News
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00:00 In Pakistan's history, one of the most complicated IMF programs was this one,
00:05 which has been approved at the third level of the staff.
00:08 Pakistan will get 1.1 billion dollars because it was overseen by three different governments.
00:15 The previous government was the elected government, then came the caretaker,
00:18 and now we have reached the next level of this agreement on the basis of the new government.
00:24 But the harsh decisions that were not made because of political issues,
00:29 were held back.
00:31 Sometimes it was the forces of the United Nations, sometimes it was the voters themselves,
00:34 or the interests of the people within their own party.
00:38 That is why these policies are not adopted.
00:41 For example, if we talk about privatization, if we talk about taxing traders,
00:45 now all this has to be done.
00:47 Now there is no time, no space, and frankly,
00:50 now it is allowed to postpone these decisions further.
00:54 So how will this happen, what will be the consequences, and what will be the effects on the lives of the common man?
01:01 We will talk about this in a realistic way.
01:03 Dr. Mifta Ismail is with us.
01:05 He is the former minister of treasury.
01:07 But before that, I would like to show you a tweet by Khawaja Asif.
01:11 It seems that an opposition person has tweeted this.
01:14 Khawaja Asif, whose government was hitting 18 before the last election,
01:19 is now showing a tweet in which he is showing the difference in tax between the salaried class,
01:25 exporters, retailers, and other businesses and retailers.
01:29 He is basically showing that the middle class, the tax imposed on them,
01:35 look at their income, and the tax imposed on the retailers, look at their income.
01:40 And he is saying that what kind of injustice is this, they are terrorists,
01:44 their cases should be held in the courts of terrorism.
01:46 It seems that he is sitting in the opposition, he is in the government.
01:49 Now you make these decisions and tell us how you are going to show us the tax from these economic terrorists.
01:55 Thank you very much, Mr. Mifta.
01:57 Let's start with the obvious thing that now it is an elected government,
02:00 even though it has a fusion with a technocratic set-up,
02:03 but still it has a constituency, a voter.
02:08 And keeping that voter in mind, the decisions were not made in the past.
02:12 For example, Mr. Nawaz Sharif said in a meeting that he will not increase the price of electricity,
02:17 he will not increase the price of gas, but IMF says that everything has to be done.
02:20 So now Mr. Shibaz, will you listen to IMF or Mr. Nawaz Sharif, or what is your choice at the moment?
02:26 There is no choice.
02:29 We will have to listen to IMF only because IMF is your lender of last resort.
02:37 If we do not do the program with IMF for the next 4 or 3 years, then we will lead Pakistan's economy to destruction.
02:45 So we will have to listen to IMF, there is no choice.
02:48 You can do it on the margins, and what IMF is talking about at the moment, we should probably do it ourselves.
02:55 And I have not seen Mr. Khwaja Asif's tweet, but I appreciate that he is saying something.
03:03 He is preparing a ground that if you want to take this country forward, then everyone has to contribute.
03:08 The government has put a hand on those who have a thin neck, who can be easily touched,
03:13 but those who can protest, or shut down, or do other things, it is also necessary to put a hand on them.
03:22 And look, there are two types of difficult decisions.
03:28 One difficult decision is when you increase prices. No political government wants to increase prices.
03:33 But anyway, the difficulty comes to the people when you make petrol, electricity, gas, taxes, etc. expensive.
03:41 The second difficult decision is when you make changes in the government, you change the NFC award,
03:47 or you do corruption, in which you take on unions, or take on other political parties.
03:54 This is difficult for the government itself. Our government always made difficult decisions for the people.
04:00 It was not making difficult decisions for its own government. Now it will have to do this.
04:05 Let's talk about both of these things one by one.
04:07 First of all, the table in front of us, and a very good story on this was done by Mr. Shabaz Rana last year, I remember it well.
04:13 Retailers are being taxed at around 54 billion, and the salaried class is being taxed at around 264 billion.
04:20 I mean, look at the difference in the balance. It was tried. I remember you tried last year,
04:26 you had to return the tax. How will it be done now? And why did you have to return it at that time?
04:31 And if this is the step that they will have to take eventually, then won't there be any political obstacle that came at that time?
04:40 There was a political obstacle. At that time, we had prepared.
04:44 It was my fault that we talked about 3000 rupees, but the FBI made a mistake and made it 6000. But that was corrected in a day.
04:50 It caused controversy. We said that no, it is 3000.
04:53 It was obvious that the pressure was high.
04:56 There is a part of the record that some other people who were in the Muslim League, who made a big fuss about it,
05:05 after that, Mian Nawaz Sharif and Maryam also became active, and then Mr. Shabaz also told me.
05:10 Then I said, let's delay it for two months and then implement it in a different way.
05:15 Because the Electricity Ministry was also telling me that a lot of electricity bill has to be increased, so let's not do so much together.
05:22 And I had talked to the IMF that I will delay it for two months and do it.
05:26 So that was the understanding that it will be done from 1st October.
05:29 And in fact, if I was not removed, then I was doing it from 1st October.
05:34 But you are right that there was political pressure on me. You have seen the tweets that were openly tweeted so that political capital is saved and put on me.
05:45 But look, our tax to GDP ratio is 10%.
05:53 We collect 10% of the national income tax.
05:56 We take most of the tax on manufacturing and on the salaried class.
06:01 We take tax on two people.
06:03 Now when we put more tax on manufacturing, it becomes uncomparative vis-Ã -vis India and other countries.
06:11 So we can't put tax there either.
06:13 Now what we have done is that we have left the property.
06:16 A very large part of this is GDP property.
06:19 And the richest people in Pakistan keep their money in the property.
06:23 We all know this.
06:24 You can keep declared wealth or undeclared wealth because the DC rate is different, the VR rate is different, etc.
06:33 After that, we don't tax real estate, we don't do interest rates, and this is not done by the province, and the property is with the province, it is not done.
06:41 Then we leave the agricultural income.
06:43 More than 20% is our GDP share.
06:45 More than 20% is our retail and wholesale trade.
06:48 We leave that.
06:49 If we leave so many parts that we will not put our share in Pakistan, then how will the country move forward?