New Delhi, May 29 (IANS). Pakistan is trying to copy India to strengthen its sinking economy and is planning to go towards the cashless economy.
According to a report by Pakistani media Dawn, as part of the pre-budget discussion, Pakistan Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb has promised to remove the tax burden from the salaried class and organized and put on others through digitization. Also, cashless economy is being planned to increase.
The budget for FY 2025-26 in Pakistan can be presented on 2 June. Due to this, pre-budget discussions are going on with industries and parties in the neighboring country.
The report stated that the Pakistani government wants to increase digitization in the unorganized sector. For this, it is working on proposals to block cash payments in some sectors with tax paying tax on cash transactions and incentives like India. Some of these have been finalized.
The situation of Pakistan’s economy continues to deteriorate. According to reports, since 1950, Pakistan has taken loans from international institutions at least 25 times.
He is again pleading for a loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to improve his economic condition.
In May 2025, the IMF gave a loan of one billion dollars to the neighboring country under Expected Fund Facility (EFF).
Pakistan’s external debt has exceeded $ 133 billion, which is one third of its economy and more than 43 percent of the government’s income is going into interest payment.
On the other hand, India is miles ahead of Pakistan with a $ 4 trillion dollar economy.
Digital ecosystem has been fully developed in India. The number of transactions to be carried out through Unified Payment Interface (UPI) alone increased by 34 percent to 17.89 billion in April and the value of these transactions was Rs 23.95 lakh crore.
UPI can also be paid not only in India but also in Bhutan, Malaysia, UAE, Singapore, Oman, Qatar, Russia, France, Sri Lanka and Mauritius.
-IANS
ABS/ABM
