The UN Secretary-General’s Special Advocate for Inclusive Finance for Development, Queen Maxima of the Netherlands, has stressed that financial inclusion is pivotal for the development and economy of Pakistan.
Addressing the Pakistan Innovative Finance Forum in Islamabad yesterday, she said the financial inclusion will also create more opportunities for the people of Pakistan.
She said that according to a survey, Pakistan has expanded financial inclusion from 13% to 21%, a development that is welcomed.
However, she stressed there is great potential of more rapid change particularly for women and the poor.
The queen was appreciative of Pakistan’s revised financial inclusion strategy targeting 65mn active digital accounts by 2023, including 22mn to be held by women.
In his remarks on the occasion, Minister for Economic Affairs Hammad Azhar said the government is committed to increase the financial inclusion and has also set targets for this purpose.
He said that the government is preparing a policy to uplift the small and medium enterprises (SMEs), adding that the government has also taken many other initiatives to promote the SMEs including Kamyab Jawan Programme to provide subsidised loans to the youth.
Azhar noted that the SMEs are backbone of the Pakistani economy and that they have an important role in exports and the economic growth.
The minister said government is also giving special emphasis on ease of doing business, adding that Pakistan has jumped 28 points in the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business Ranking.
This, he said, is a great achievement and expressed the confidence that the country’s ranking will further improve next year.
Speaking on the occasion, Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) chairman Shabbar Zaidi said Pakistan’s economy is being documented.
He regretted that no effort was made in the past to bring the SMEs into the tax regime.
The SMEs remained out of the tax system due to the lack of taxation-friendly environment.
The FBR chairman however, said the present government is taking serious efforts to bring the SMEs including those in the manufacturing sector to the tax system.
Zaidi said the government has embarked upon the tax reforms programme and the focus of it on the simplification of tax laws to bring more people into the tax net.