Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has directed the Privatization Ministry to present the final schedule for the implementation of the privatization of Pakistan International Airlines.

He presided over a high-level meeting regarding the privatization of PIA and the restructuring of the Federal Board of Revenue in Islamabad today.

The Prime Minister emphasized ensuring transparency at all stages in the privatization process of the National Airline and clarified that laziness and carelessness will not be tolerated in this regard.

The progress of the privatization of PIA so far and the upcoming steps in this regard were reviewed in the meeting.The Prime Minister further directed the Law Ministry to immediately make recommendations for the resolution of pending cases and legal disputes in the courts related to tax collections and revenue so that the hurdles in the way of disbursement of 1.7 trillion rupees to the national exchequer can be resolved.                               

He also directed to submit proposals regarding the establishment of the legal department in the Federal Board of Revenue.

Giving in-principle approval of the proposed roadmap of the FBR automation system, the Prime Minister directed to implementation of this roadmap with a clear time frame. He asked that targets not only be realistic but also the fastest in the region in terms of speed of implementation.

Shehbaz Sharif said there is no time to waste and expressed resolve to work round the clock to achieve this goal. He said this is the question of the country's bright future and economic recovery.

Meanwhile, automation of FBR, ensuring transparency in the system, structural reforms according to global standards, increase in tax through incentives, elimination of corruption and smuggling, separation of inland revenue and customs departments and tax rates came under discussion in the meeting.

He termed the implementation of reforms as inevitable to achieve a six to seven per cent national growth rate.

He stressed the need for checking the exemptions given on all taxes and ensuring an effective third-party audit system.

Dr Shamshad Akhtar told the meeting that tax to GDP in Pakistan is less than 9.5 per cent as compared to the rest of the world, which is very important for the development of Pakistan. She said that 55.6 per cent do not pay any tax while only 3.3 per cent pay tax. She further said that two hundred thousand people pay ninety per cent of tax.