The assurance given by the finance minister that this would be the last IMF programme, said as much. Reform would entail correction of direct-indirect tax imbalance, reduced number of taxes, and expansion of the tax base and an efficient tax-collection machinery. It is possible that the forthcoming medium-term framework will contain reform measures. Except for the poor whose assistance was declared by the finance minister as a constitutional duty, the package has something for everybody. Ease of Doing Business is the name of the game — a piecemeal way of doing away with business irritants.

Source: The Express Tribune January 25, 2019 05:48 UTC