The Pakistan Economy Watch (PEW) on Sunday said further erosion in the value of local currency will be against the national interests as it will hit economy and masses hard. Government must reconsider export policy and try to reduce cost of doing business by revisiting energy costs, tax breaks and payment of refunds, it said.
Situation calls for fundamental changes in TDAP and bring an end to the culture of appointing incompetent commercial counsellors in the foreign missions, said Dr. Murtaza Mughal, President PEW.
In a statement issued here today, he said that devaluing rupees will make imports costly which are double than the exports, it will increase size of foreign debt and interest being paid on loans. Moreover, devaluation will trigger inflation, increase price of fossil fuel, edible oil machinery etc. which will hut every citizen of the country.
Dr. Murtaza Mughal said so far that fall of rupee has increased foreign debt by 248 billion rupees and it will go up by Rs 620 billion if rupee is allowed to slide to Rs 110 against US dollar. It will put pressure on the country as government is already paying 44 percent of collections in interest of the loans.
He said that export to GDP ratio stood at 10.7 percent in 2013-13 which came down to 10.3 percent in 2014-15 and dropped to 8.9 percent in 2014-15 which indicates the dwindling performance of external sector. Interests of whole nation should not be compromised for the stakes of textile sector, said Dr. Mughal.
