ISLAMABAD: Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Information and Broadcasting Firdous Ashiq Awan on Monday said that the federal government’s measures for the prosperity of the general public and national development have started yielding results.

In a series of tweets, she said the government was implementing the agenda of economic reforms under the leadership of PM Imran Khan and was taking steps to improve economic condition of the state.

Awan said enhancement of tax revenue and reduction in fiscal deficit were included in the government’s top priorities.

She said the government has collected Rs580 billion tax in the first two months of the new fiscal year as compared to Rs509 billion in the corresponding period of the last year.

She said 600,000 new tax filers have been added into the list of filers of the Federal Bureau of Revenue (FBR).

She said, “credit for such success goes to Prime Minister Imran Khan, who has for the first time [in the history of Pakistan] turned tax revenue collection into a national movement.”

Awan said it was for the first time that the national exchequer was increasing and not the assets of rulers. “This is good news for the country and the entire nation.”

She termed a 73 percent reduction in current account deficit as “a major achievement,” adding that there has been a significant increase in exports and decrease in imports.

She said Rs70 billion have been received from two cellular companies under license fee, and another Rs70 billion are expected from another cellular company. As a whole, Rs200 billion will be collected from this sector.

The PTI stalwart said the government was striving to promote economic activities and facilitate the business community.

Awan said the government has reduced its expenditures. “No supplementary grant was approved for two months, and the government has saved Rs246 billion due to appreciation in the currency value in the last few weeks.

She expressed confidence that the government would be able to collect Rs1,000 billion as non-tax revenue this year, which included Rs200 billion from cellular companies, Rs400 billion from profits of the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) and Rs300 billion from the privatisation of re-gasified liquefied natural gas (LNG) plants.