. pakistan ’ s tariff rates have been gradually brought down to the current maximum rate of 25 percent. the average tariff rate is as low as 13 - 14 percent and should be further lowered. contrary to conventional wisdom the reduction in tax rates has not only ended smuggling of a large number of imported goods and stimulated domestic production, but has also raised custom duty collection. lower tax rates and absence of discretionary measures by the customs officials have, in fact, created disincentives for tax evasion and helped accurate declaration and classification of imported goods. it is seldom realized that high tariffs act as a tax on exports that are not able to obtain the required imports and raw materials for meeting their production in a cost effective manner. 8. financial sovereignty : pakistan had lost control on its economic management and thus virtually conceded the right to design policies to international financial institutions particularly the imf. we had lost our credibility as a serious development partner because we entered into successive agreements and made commitments on policy reforms and institutional changes. but, we were good at drawing down the first tranche of the loan and then abandoning the programme. it is only since the year 2000 when pakistan entered into a stand - by arrangement with the imf ( successfully completed in 2001 ) followed by a threeyear prgf programme that the country has shown serious mindedness and a commitment to fulfill its obligations. by the end of 2004 pakistan had drawn down 12 tranches in succession on time without any hiatus and decided to forego the remaining two tranches voluntarily after the review was completed by the imf board. pakistan has thus been able to regain its financial sovereignty and is no longer dependent on the whims and caprices of the international financial institutions or large bilateral creditor countries who control these institutions. sustainability of reforms and policies : how can one be sure that these reforms and policies will be sustained in the coming years? to address this question, let us first look at the history of economic policies and reforms pursued by different political parties who come to power in the 1990s and at their party manifestos to gain some insight into the future direction of policies. the most comprehensive reforms aimed at liberalization, deregulation and privatization of the economy were initiated by the nawaz sharif government in 1991 and institutionalized under the protection of economic reforms act 1992. these same policies were followed subsequently by benazir government, the second nawaz sharif government, the interim governments, the military government of 1999 - 2002 and the elected governments since 2002

sbp is exploring areas such as open application programming interfaces ( apis ), and security and data privacy to foster innovation and financial inclusion. for this, sbp has already developed a technical sandbox where banks and fintechs will partner on shared data on developing use cases for financial wellbeing of customers. after this pilot, sbp will be issuing guidelines and framework on open banking. third, the sbp has successfully deployed pakistan's instant payment system, called raast. this state - of - the - art payment system promises to be simple, free, fast, interoperable, and secure payment option for customers. the sbp launched raast in 2021 with bulk payments facility that enables processing bulk disbursements such as dividend disbursements, government to person payments, mutual funds payments, business to business batch payments, pay - roll payments by corporates etc. 2 / 3 bis - central bankers'speeches the second use - case of raast that is person to person payments was launched early this year in february 2022. this has allowed individuals to transfer payments to other individuals, family members, and friends across the country. the sbp is now working on the third use case of raast, which is person to merchant payments. this will enable individuals to make electronic payments to merchants through alternate channels for instance, qr codes and request to pay, which is a mechanism whereby payee can initiate request for payment to the payer. ladies and gentlemen, academia can play a very important role in the development of financial markets. in this regard, i would like to highlight few areas for possible interventions of the academia : first, sbp and the government's initiative to improve financial inclusion is challenged by low financial literacy among masses. to improve financial literacy, academia has a significant role to play in not just educating students but also to wider sections of society through innovative means. this is an area where the regulators and academia can also potentially partner and bridge this gap by working towards a common goal of inclusive growth. second, some businesses, such as micro and small and medium enterprises, have limited awareness about different financing options and do not have the expertise to present their project proposals and borrowing requirements to banks. third, from the perspective of promoting growth and innovation in value chain financing, academia can play an important role in enhancing their understanding of financial matters. the finance lab may consider collaborating with related disciplines to conduct studies on business processes, market sizing and value chain