Senate body urges govt to cut non-development expenditures

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The Senate Standing Committee on Finance and Revenue has recommended that government should reduce its expenditures on non-development side rather of development side.
The meeting was held under the chair of Nasreen Jalil on Thursday to discuss functions and responsibilities of State Bank of Pakistan. During the meeting Ilyas Bilor said that banks had placed Khyber Pakhtunkhwa into red zone and loan facilities were not being given to them while extra charges had been paid to State Bank of Pakistan. He said that it was very sad that the SBP was a national entity and it did not have its branch in Peshawar adding that if SBP could carry cash to remote areas of the country then it should be closed. He said that exports from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa were more than two billion and SBP was not ready to operate there which was very unfortunate.
Senator Kalsoom Perveen said that law and order situation was not good in Karachi where SBP head office was established and it was doing all its functions then why the administration had adopted discriminatory attitude with other provinces especially KP and Balochistan.
Officials of State Bank informed the committee that inflation target set by the government have not achieved because of global financial crises in the world where oil prices increased from $64 to $ 147 and economy suffered. They said that our total debt is Rs 67 trillion that was 67 percent of the GDP. They said that government had not started paying back the loans that were borrowed from SBP.
During the meeting, finance secretary told the committee that during current year $ 1.8 billion have been received under Coalition Support Fund (CSF) and other hundred million were expected to be received during current fiscal year.
State Bank Governor Yaseen Anwar informed the committee that it was very difficult to change private sector reforms and if done then situation would improved. He said that government had changed National Banking policy and private sectors were motivated but now it is difficult to change that trend again.
Governor State Bank further told that Anti Money Laundering laws had been enforced to stop illegal transfer of money and in 2009 companies who were working in joint venture with foreign companies directed to register themselves with local regulatory bodies.
Officials of State Bank told the legislative body that during current fiscal year remittances were expected to exceed from Rs 14. 2 billion while in last fiscal year 20112-13 these were Rs 13.2 billion.

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