- Finance minister says certain politicians trying to exploit PIA privatisation issue for their own benefits
- Claims inflation has dropped to 2.1 per cent – the lowest in 12 years
Finance Minister Ishaq Dar said on Saturday the total public external debt as of November 30, 2015 stood at $51.31 billion whereas by September 30, it was recorded at $48.13 billion, thus showing an increase of $3.2 billion in two years of the current government.
“Under the International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme, the current government has so far received $5.2 billion out of which it paid back $4.42 billion as debt received by the previous governments,” Dar said while addressing a press conference here.
The minister said the total debt of the country increased from Rs 14,400 billion by September 30, 2013 to Rs 18,224 billion by November 30, 2015.
He clarified that the government’s debts were not agreed on higher rates as the average cost of total debts remained only 3.3 per cent.
Dar said the country was now moving towards right direction and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz government had succeeded in bringing a number of reforms in the national economy which had been suffering when it took over the charge.
“The country’s revenue has witnessed a very good progress during the first six months of the ongoing fiscal year (2015-16), the revenue collection increased by 18.6 per cent to Rs 1,385 billion as compared to the same period of the previous year,” added the minister.
Dar said that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) had expressed satisfaction over achieving the revenue collection target. He told reporters that during the first quarter of the ongoing fiscal year, the government could not achieve the revenue target of Rs 640 billion and there was a shortfall of Rs 40 billion while in the second quarter, it surpassed the target of Rs 750 billion as it achieved Rs 785 billion during the period.
He further said that the Voluntary Tax Compliance Scheme (VTCS) was now being implemented as the act had been signed by the president. He said the basic purpose of this scheme was to promote tax culture in the country and to bring those traders in to the tax net who were not under it. He said that in 2013 the total registered tax payers in the country were about 700,000 while this had now increased to over one million.
“Through this scheme, hundreds of thousands new tax payers were expected to come under tax net which would further increase the revenue collection”, Dar said, adding Pakistan had, for the first time, successfully completed the 10th review.
He said the government inherited 8.8 per cent fiscal deficit when it came into power in 2013 which had now been brought down to 5.3 per cent and would further be sliced to 4.3 per cent during the current fiscal year 2015-16.
The minister said the inflation which was 12 per cent in 2013 had dropped to 2.1 per cent- the lowest in 12 years.
Dar said despite heavy payments in term of energy projects, the foreign exchange reserves had been increased to over $ 20 billion. Out of $ 20.27 billion foreign exchange reserves, the State Bank of Pakistan was holding $15.43 billion while commercial banks had $ 4.48 billion.
He said the present government had adopted fiscal discipline in all financial sectors and the public development expenditure which were only Rs 400 billion had been increased to Rs 700 billion.
Dar said the government had initiated a number of projects for the generation of electricity across the country, adding that due to these efforts the government would be able to add 10,000 MW of electricity by the year 2018. This, he said, would help supply of energy not only to the domestic sector but also to the industrial sector besides import of LNG through a transparent system in order to achieve higher growth trajectory. He hoped that the government would also achieve the target of GDP growth rate of five per cent this year and by 2018, the growth rate would likely to remain six-seven per cent.
Regarding petroleum prices, the minister said that the average price of petrol per litre around the globe was $1.19 while its price in Pakistan was only $0.73 per litre. Similarly, he added, the average global price of high speed diesel was $1.05 per litre while in Pakistan it was $0.79 per litre.
To a question regarding the issue of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA), the minister said some elements were trying to mislead employees of PIA on privatisation of the national flag carrier. “Some hidden hands are trying to create misunderstanding on the issue of privatisation of PIA regarding their job security,” he added.
He said that it was against the policy of the government to layoff or sent home any employee of the PIA, adding, “We only want this loss making unit to become a profitable entity through strategic partnership.”
Dar also strongly denounced the petty politics of the politicians who were trying to exploit the issue for their own benefits against the country’s interest.
To another question, the minister said all the matters of civil side were quite on track regarding the upcoming housing and population census in the country. He said that in order to make the whole process completely transparent and credible it was necessary to deploy law enforcement forces.
He said he had already directed the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) to coordinate with the relevant authorities to arrange the required number of security persons submit a complete action plan for his consideration within three days.
He said the Pakistan Army was currently engaged in Operation Zarb-e-Azb and if the required number of forces could not be arranged on time then the process of the population and housing census could be delayed.