MULTAN, Jan 14th: Federal Finance Minister Shaukat Tareen has said that Charter of Economy (CoE) be framed on the pattern of Charter of democracy (CoD) to introduce a permanrnt economic system with the consent of all political forces which would be later approved by the parliament so that next government could not deny it. Delivering his speech at a meeting of executive committee of Multan chamber of Commerce & Industry (MCCI) chaired by Asrar Ahmed Awan, The Minister said that Government had formed an austerity committee which would submit its recommendations like shrinking the huge federal cabinet, eliminating the overlapped ministries, minimizing the use of vehicles.He vowed to stop the breeding of parasite sectors like Steel mills, Utility Stores, PIA, Railway etc which were consuming 200 / 225 billion per annum.He said that When private sector can run its airlines and transport in profit why should we pay huge losses against these sectors. Shaukat Tareen said that the poverty rate in Pakistan is climbing, and at present, it stands at 28 percent. said government's top priority, at the moment, is to bring the rate of inflation down to nine percent. Tareen said previous governments had ignored important sectors of agriculture, production, human resource development education and health which are key to the progress. Commenting on the NFC award, Tareen said Federal Finance Minister, Shaukat Tareen has said that provinces would get an amount of Rs. 227 billion extra in the next fiscal year under new NFC award , saying the award is the victory of democracy. He said that the amount would touch the figure of Rs. 1250 billion in the next five years. The finance minister said that there was no confidence on federation by provinces but the incumbent democratic government removed that lack of confidence and provinces also showed inflexibility. Shaukat Tareen further stated that the services charges have been reduced to one percent from 5 percent, adding the government reduced its expenditures and increased revenue. Praising role of the Punjab Government, the minister said that the signing on award was possible due to flexibility shown by Punjab, adding the share of Balochistan has been increased to address injustices faced by the province in the past. Shaukat Tareen said that the federation would fulfil its commitment . He underlined the need for enhancing tax to GDP ratio to 18 to 20 percent to achieve 7 to 8 percent growth in the economy.He said that other rising economies like China, Turkey and India have enhanced their tax to GDP ratio beyond 20 percent to maintain higher GDP growth. He informed that China has maintained a tax to GDP ratio of 21 percent in the past several years while Turkey is maintaining it at 28 percent to accomplish higher economic growth. Tareen pointed out that despite higher revenue collection rising from Rs 300 billion to Rs 1.3 trillion, the tax to GDP ratio has declined from 13.9 percent in 1996 to 9.6 percent in 2007-08. He said the government which collect higher revenue can look after the welfare of their people much better. “On the contrary, revenue collection in Pakistan has fallen short, forcing the economic managers to resort to bank borrowing and thus fueling inflation and crowding out private sector”, he added. Shaukat Tareen said that profiteers were responsible for price hike in the country. He said the government was trying to decrease prices in the country and it has lowered petrol prices and CPI has also come down. Earlier Malik Asrar Ahmed Awan President of MCCI said in his welcome address that there was dire need of changing the mindset of tax managers who were harassing the tax-payers and Tax bases must be expanded instead of incrwasing the Tax ratio, He said that marke up rate and bank spread must be reduced to facilitate the industriaslists and top priority be given to SMEs ,Upon this The Minister said that we had allocated Rs.10 billion for such people who had a viable idea/plan for Small or Medium enterprise but they had no money to pay the equity.