Friday declared additional weekly public holiday Ishaq Dar-led committee to monitor steps daily Third-party audit of austerity policy ordered Ministries told to submit regular reports on energy saving.
ISLAMABAD – Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Tuesday directed all federal ministries and divisions to ensure full implementation of government measures related to simplicity, austerity and energy conservation in view of the prevailing regional and global economic situation.
Chairing a review meeting at the Prime Minister’s House in Islamabad, the prime minister stressed the need for strict compliance with the austerity policy to maintain economic stability.
The meeting decided that an additional weekly public holiday would be observed on Friday as part of energy conservation measures.
Addressing the participants, the prime minister said the government was making every possible effort to keep the national economy stable despite challenging global circumstances.
He informed the meeting that a special committee headed by Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar had been constituted to monitor the implementation of austerity and energy conservation measures.
The committee will review the implementation of these steps on a daily basis and submit its report to the prime minister.
Shehbaz Sharif also directed that a third-party audit of the austerity policy be conducted to assess its impact and effectiveness.
He instructed ministries and institutions to submit photographs of government vehicles withdrawn from use under the austerity policy to the Cabinet Division for record.
The prime minister further directed ministries to send reports to the Prime Minister’s Office on steps taken to make the work-from-home system more effective.
The meeting was informed that all federal ministries and divisions would submit daily and weekly reports to the committee regarding the implementation of austerity, energy conservation and workforce management measures.
The meeting was attended by Federal Minister for Climate Change Musadik Malik, Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb, Minister for Economic Affairs Ahad Khan Cheema, Information Minister Attaullah Tarar, and Minister of State for Finance and Railways Bilal Azhar Kayani, along with senior officials.
Separately, chairing a weekly review meeting on the affairs of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), the prime minister directed authorities to bring a majority of productive sectors under automated monitoring systems to increase tax revenues.
He also instructed the FBR to further strengthen enforcement measures to curb tax evasion.
The prime minister directed the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan to complete the serialization of locally manufactured medicines at the earliest.
He appreciated the economic team for recruiting experts on merit in the executive team of Pakistan Revenue Automation Limited and for efforts aimed at strengthening the institution.
The prime minister also ordered the development of the Auto Tax System, Digital Invoicing System (IRIS) and other applications for taxpayers in Urdu and other local languages.
Officials informed the meeting that multiple technology-based systems are already operational to monitor production in various sectors to increase tax collection.
These include video analytics, unit counting, barcode scanning, stamping and serialization technologies to monitor industrial output.
Production monitoring has already been ensured at sugar, cement, cigarette and fertilizer factories, which has resulted in an increase in revenue.
Authorities are now extending similar monitoring mechanisms to textile, leather, paper, automobile and beverage sectors, which are expected to generate billions of rupees in additional tax revenues.
The meeting was also informed that amendments had been made to the law governing Alternative Dispute Resolution Committees to ensure transparency and restore taxpayers’ confidence.
Officials further briefed the prime minister that the new executive team of Pakistan Revenue Automation Limited has become operational and the digital invoicing system has been fully activated.
In addition, a modern data centre for the FBR has been completed, while an integrated GPS tracking system for petroleum products is also being implemented.
The meeting was told that the digital cargo tracking system, particularly the e-bility system, has been introduced to curb smuggling and track cargo movement across the country.
