The Senate Standing Committee on Finance was informed on Thursday that Pakistan has obtained $30.72 billion in foreign loans during the last 10 years and $11.2 billion were just taken to repay the debt.
The meeting of the committee was held under the chairmanship of Saleem Mandviwala which was informed by the secretary Economic Affairs Division (EAD) that total foreign loan amounted to $ 47.8 billion on June 30, 2015. Pakistan on the average repays $ 2.4 billion per annum to the lenders, he added.
During the last 10 years the government has taken $ 5.2 billion loans for the energy sector while $ 2 billion were taken for governance, research and statistics. The committee demanded sharing of details of the loans taken for governance to ascertain whether they were taken on merit. The government had taken loan of $ 2.9 billion for transport and communication sector, $ 1.7 for earthquake, $1.5 billion for education and $ 1 billion for agriculture during the last 10 years.
The committee expressed no confidence over the answers given by Chairman Privatization Commission Mohammad Zubair over the privatization of the Heavy Electric Complex. Mandviwala said the Privatization Commission authorities had come unprepared to the meeting and were not able to answer simple questions – whether the PC rules allows accepting sole bid.
Zubair was of the opinion that they prepared answers for the written questions forwarded to them while more time was required to answer questions raised in the meeting. The committee decided to form a sub-committee to look into the privatization matters of HEC.
The committee expressed no confidence over the working of seven joint working companies set up with the friendly countries. The committee asked these companies not to invest their resources in the government securities, bonds and PPIBs. Their boards should have professionals from the private sector and they should make efforts to attract foreign investment in the country.
