Businessmen in a meeting at Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI) expressed concerns on Monday over the trend of consistent rise in public debt of the country due to which every Pakistani now owed a debt of more than Rs101,300 and called upon the government to take urgent remedial measures to save the country from falling into an inextricable debt trap.
ICCI President Atif Ikram Sheikh, Senior Vice President Sheikh Pervez Ahmed and Vice President Sheikh Abdul Waheed said that the country had witnessed an unprecedented increase of around 434 per cent in public debt within a short span of 15 years as our public debt in 2000 was Rs 3,172 billion which has surged to Rs 16,936 billion (as of end March 2015). It showed that the successive governments had resorted to huge borrowings without giving consideration to the fact that this reckless approach was pushing the country towards a serious debt trap.
They stressed upon the government to make an innovative strategy to get rid of the debt issue and give priority focus to exploiting indigenous resources to overcome fiscal deficit problems. They said that heavy borrowing by the government from banks had also limited the space for credit flow to the private sector due to which businesses were facing problems in growth and expansion. They said the best option for the government to minimise its reliance on debt was to take measures to strengthen the private sector. They said that easy credit flow to private sector would help the country in promoting business activities, increasing exports, reducing imports, improving revenue collection and minimizing reliance on debt.
The ICCI officials said that government should focus on making more investment in energy generation projects that would help in overcoming energy shortages leading to rapid industrialisation and more job creation in the country. They were of the view that giving preference to enhancing exports through private sector development, improving tax revenue and curtailing the non-developmental expenditures were some of the options for reducing fiscal deficit and curtailing dependence on public debt.
