ISLAMABAD:

The board of the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) on Tuesday approved the final results of the 6th population census after a hiatus of nearly five years and also approved a new base value of the economy.

The 19th PBS Board Meeting was held under the chairmanship of Federal Planning and Development Minister Asad Umar.

Last month, the government issued a presidential order to make Omar chairman of the board of directors in place of finance minister Shaukat Tarin.

According to a press release published by the Ministry of Planning, the government council was informed of the results of the 6th population and housing census of 2017. It was also informed of the various activities of the 7th population and housing census. habitat – the very first “digital” in the country.

The 6th census took place from March 15, 2017 to May 24, 2017 in two phases with the support of the armed forces. The provisional results of the 6th Population and Housing Census were announced on August 25, 2017 and were also used for the 2018 general elections.

However, the final results of the 2017 census have not been released due to questions raised about the process and the results by some quarters.

Read more: The CCI gives the green light to the 7th population census

The federal government formed a committee, led by Minister of Maritime Affairs Ali Haider Zaidi, on February 11, 2020 for a final decision on the 2017 results.

The committee submitted its report with the recommendation to approve and publish the final results of the 2017 census in the wider national interest and conduct the next one as soon as possible using modern technology.

The board has now officially approved the results of the 6th population census.

Pakistan’s population reached a staggering 207.8 million in 2017, an increase of 75.4 million people in 19 years.

The population was just over 130 million in 1998, the year the 5th census was taken. This means that the country has seen a 57% increase in population at an annual rate of 2.4%.

The government council also approved the calendar of activities for carrying out the 7th population census. The activities will start from May and the government has a plan to organize the census without the involvement of the armed forces.

After discussion and deliberation, the rebasing of the National Accounts from 2005-06 to 2015-16 was also approved by the Board.

It was also decided that the work on the next rebasing could be launched after the 2022 population census. The financial year 2022-23 could be taken as the reference year for the next rebasing of the national accounts.

The rebasing exercise brought additional goods and services into the formal sector of the economy which also helped to increase the size of the economy by an additional Rs 3.1 trillion till FY 2015- 16.

The size of the dollar economy jumped to $347 billion – estimated at 64 trillion rupees in June this year in rupee terms.

With $347 billion, Pakistan’s position among global economies has improved to 35th, behind Denmark, whose economic size stands at $355 billion.

The decision to overhaul the economy from fiscal year 2005-2006 to 2015-2016 also led to a reduction in the public debt burden, but further lowered the tax-to-GDP ratio. The Federal Board of Revenue’s (FBR) tax-to-GDP ratio is now down to just 8.5% and could rise 1% by June of this year.

However, the Board of Governors did not approve the proposal to reconstitute the National Accounts Committee (NAC). The proposal was to place the chairmanship of the CNA in the hands of the statistician, taking it over from the planning secretary. He also didn’t approve of the NAC’s grand roster.