KARACHI: The people earning taxable income will be brought into the tax net through artificial intelligence, a senior government official said on Friday.

Addressing the members of the Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI) and the Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI), Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin said that the country needs tax money and, for this purpose, broadening the tax base is important.

“Those people earning taxable money will be brought into the tax net through artificial intelligence,” he added.

The finance minister said the tax authorities had data of 15 million people, who were not in the tax net. He sought assistance from the business community to probe such people who concealed their income and are not on the tax net.

He assured his support to the business community and said the money generation is the right of the businessmen.

Talking about the petroleum levy, the finance minister said that on the directive of the prime minister the levy had been waived. An amount of Rs600 billion was estimated in the budget but so far not a single rupee was collected under this head, he added.

The finance minister discussed the rising inflation and said that high commodity prices in the international market were a major reason behind the inflation.

The previous government had not paid attention to the agriculture sector. “Due to this, we are importing commodities and paying higher prices,” he added.

In the budget, the government had paid special attention to the agri sector, the finance minister said, adding that the government was trying to eliminate the role of the middleman.

Talking about the last budget, Tarin said that the country was under the IMF programme. The IMF had asked to withdraw tax incentives of Rs500 billion. “But we convince the IMF on the incentives,” he added.

The finance minister said decisions were taken to reduce duty and tax rates on the import of raw materials to facilitate the business community.

Regarding the situation in Afghanistan, he said, it is difficult to say at this time.

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