• Finance minister vows to shift tax burden away from salaried class, other documented sectors
• Meets commercial banks, regulators, industry bodies to gather input for budget
• Stakeholders agree incentives must make digital payments more appealing than cash
• Ceramic tile manufacturers say import dependence cut from 74pc to 4pc
• New digital financing model being developed to support small-scale farmers

ISLAMABAD: As part of pre-budget consultations with stakeholders, Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb on Tuesday promised to shift the tax burden away from the salaried class and documented sector to others through digitisation, and hinted at major steps towards the compulsory use of digital payments to maximise a cashless economy and increase documented transactions.

A Ministry of Finance team, led by the minister, had a series of meetings with commercial banks, development financial institutions, regulators and industrial representatives, including ceramics manufacturers and steel producers, to discuss policy measures for inclusion in the next year’s federal budget.

Some of the proposals finalised during these meetings are believed to be strategic in nature to capture most of the undocumented economy through digitisation, including additional tax measures on cash transactions, incentives on digital payments and outrightly blocking cash payments in certain critical sectors to be identified by the Federal Board of Revenue with the support of Karandaaz, the Pakistan Revenue Automation Limited and the banking sector.

One of the meetings on accelerating Pakistan’s transition to a digital and less cash-dependent economy finalised a host of measures for inclusion in the federal budget to expand access to digital financial services, encourage the use of digital transactions, and reduce reliance on cash in everyday........

© Dawn Business