ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s federal government has proposed a relaxation in taxes, duties, and tariffs on raw materials for solar panels in the federal budget for the fiscal year 2024-25 that was presented on Wednesday, allocating a total of Rs253 billion for the energy sector.
Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb said that duties and taxes are being relaxed on the import of machinery, plants, and equipment related to the manufacturing of solar panels, including inverters and batteries.
He mentioned that the move aims to fulfill the local demand for solar panels and also facilitate revenue generation. He emphasized that the purpose of this initiative is to reduce dependence on imported solar panels and save valuable foreign exchange.
Similarly, the Finance Minister said the government had also proposed to offer tax relaxation on the import of feed and seed for the growth of fishes and lobsters to promote the aquaculture industry in the country. Besides, the government has also proposed to provide tax incentives on the import of farming, breeding, feed mill and processing units for the aquaculture industry.
Meanwhile, the finance minister proposed to end tax exemption on the import of hybrid and luxury electric vehicles.
Federal Minister for Finance Muhammad Aurangzeb on Wednesday said the federal government is allocating Rs 4 billion to promote E-bikes and Rs 2 billion for energy-efficient fans in Pakistan to reduce carbon emissions from the transport sector.
The Minister in his speech unveiling the Budget 2024-25 said Pakistan is facing the negative impacts of climate change and the government is taking initiatives to promote a green climate.
He said the major efforts of the government to address the climate crisis included the establishment of the Pakistan Climate Change Authority to implement climate mitigation and adaptation efforts.
Moreover, the National Climate Finance Strategy is being prepared and will be finalized by October 2024. The policy would help devise strategies to bring international climate finance to Pakistan which would help undertake steps to cut carbon emissions, he added.
The Minister further added that a national digital climate finance monitoring dashboard would be set up to maintain data related to climate finance received from international financing facilities.
“Gender and climate budget tagging has been done in government’s budgeting and accounting system that would help in policy making and implementation in these sectors,” the Finance Minister said.
