Inflation in Pakistan is hard to control efficiently and quickly without enhancement of agricultural production. There is need to provide credit to small farmers.
His weak financial position and skill level prevent him from employing modern equipment and inputs to his farm. It is no easy task for small farmers in Pakistan to obtain credit. It is possible only after several visits to the bank and after paying some percentage of the loan to mobile credit officer (MCO) or to other officials.
This increases the effective rate of return and multiplies his miseries. The government is cautious about inflation and thus has taken various steps to release demand pressures on the one hand and enhance supplies of essential commodities on the other.
To ease demand pressures, the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has continuously tightened the monetary policy over the last three years and more so in the current fiscal year, while to enhance supplies, the government has relaxed its import regime and allowed imports of several essential items so that there is a continuous flow in the supply of those important commodities.
In addition, the government increased the imports of items like wheat, pulse and sugar to complement the efforts of the private sector. In order to provide relief to the common man, the government also increased the scale of operations of the Utility Stores Corporation (USC) which supplies essential commodities such as wheat flour, sugar, pulses and cooking oil/ ghee at less than the market prices.
It can be achieved through curtailment of monetary expansion, lowering budget deficit, promoting efficiency by education and skill, enhancing agriculture production through research and credit availability, promoting national savings by offering positive rate of return on deposits and identifying profitable avenues of investment and revival of the economy by solving the problems of sick industrial units and quick and transparent privatization of public sector enterprises.
BILAL ASIF
Lahore
nice article
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