The National Assembly was informed on Friday that a comprehensive plan has been prepared to permanently deal with the issue of circular debt. Minister of State for Privatization Khurram Dastgir Khan told the House on the behalf of finance minister during question hour that the plan envisaged measures such as conversion of furnace-powered power plants to coal and rationalization of power tariff.
He said these steps would help reduce average production price of electricity and address the issue of circular debt on permanent basis. Khurram Dastgir said it was for the first time that the present government cleared the entire stock of circular debt within 60 days after coming into power. In the first phase‚ cash injection of 342 billion rupees and in the second phase non-cash adjustment of 138 billion rupees was completed. This has led to additional power generation of 1700 MW electricity. He said currently the circular debt stood at Rs 70 billion.
To a supplementary question‚ the minister of state said the overall thrust of the government was to restore economic growth‚ which would help generate tremendous employment opportunities for the youth. He said the government had announced several initiatives for the youth including youth skills programme and small loans. Dastgir said the government was committed to ensure financial discipline to reduce dependence on debt in future. He said the major steps included reduction of fiscal deficit and improving the balance of payments through tax reforms‚ austerity measures and reducing untargeted subsidies.
He informed the House that loans amounting to Rs 8,136 billion were taken by the previous government from domestic and foreign sources. He said investigation was being carried out as to where this huge amount was spent.
The minister of state said a series of measures had been taken to check inflation. He said the government intended to restore executive magistracy system to control the price-hike. A summary in this regard had been submitted to the cabinet division by the ministry of inter-provincial coordination. He said a ban had also been imposed on export of livestock to address the issue of rising trend in the prices of meat. The ministry of national food security and research has been directed to finalize food security policy on fast track basis. Dastgir said home remittances had witnessed a phenomenal growth. Home remittances had risen to 13.92 billion dollars from 7.81 billion dollars in 2008-09, he added.
