Expressing dissatisfaction over the performance of Commerce Ministry, the National Assembly Standing Committee on Commerce Thursday expressed its serious reservations on the ministry’s proposed budget for the fiscal year 2011-12. For the fiscal year 2011-12 Ministry of Commerce has demanded Rs 9.8 billion.
However, the Finance Division has approved an estimated budget of Rs 4.7 billion for the financial year 2011-12. The NA body met here with MNA Engineer Khurram Dastgir in the chair. The committee thoroughly reviewed Commerce Ministry’s budget for the fiscal year 2010-11 and observed that funds were not properly utilised as Rs 2 billion had been spent on commercial counsellors deputed in foreign countries to boost Pakistan’s exports and that they failed to yield any significant results.
The committee termed the Commerce Ministry’s proposed budged for the fiscal year 2011-12 as ‘jugglery of statistics.’ The committee members including former minister for Textile Industry Rana M Farooq Saeed Khan were of the view that there was no proper mechanism to check performance of councillors, who had been paid hefty money from national kitty.
Rana Saeed said that export sector which had been playing important role in Pakistan’s export was not taken on board for preparing budget proposals. The NA body unanimously decided that at the end of current fiscal year the committee would examine the utilisation of the Rs 5 billion budget by the Commerce Ministry.
The committee chairman said that the current increase in Pakistani exports was not result of measures taken by ministry rather it was increase in prices of raw material in international markets. He said that Pakistan was one of the major exporters of cotton and cotton prices had witnessed 300 percent increase in international market.
