Karachi:
The government has lined up several tax exemptions for small and medium sized enterprises, the finance minister said on Saturday a move aimed to achieve five percent growth target set for the current fiscal year. Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin said sectors such as housing, information technology and trade needed a special focus to achieve a five percent growth. The finance minister was speaking on Saturday at the inauguration ceremony of “Kamyab Jawan Markaz” at Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

“The government would not leave the low income group to rely on trickle down affect from the growth in major sectors, but would adopt bottom-up approach, and Kamyab Jawan programme was part of that strategy,” he added.

The finance minister likewise announced to expand the scope of Kamyab Pakistan program the nation over, which is presently operative in Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to provide interest free loans to farmers, low-interest loans for housing, Sihat card, etc. Shaukat Tarin said that “Rs120-140 billion will be kept in every year budget for Kamyab Pakistan programme,”

Regarding the retail sector, Tarin uncovered that complete worth of the sector was Rs18-20 trillion, however around Rs16 trillion of retailers were out of tax net, which would be gotten the tax net, he said. Prior, special assistant to PM on Youth Affairs Usman Dar expressed that 5000 shops would be opened in Karachi one month from now under Kamyab Jawan Program, adding, 25000 organizations had been set up under the plan with a payment of Rs33 billion in the country.