Finance minister says govt all set to achieve sustained economic development after disrupted sessions in previous years
Speaking at the NationalDefenceUniversity in Islamabad on Wednesday, Minister for Finance Ishaq Dar said that the government was determined to achieve sustained economic progress, breaking the last 67 years’ vicious cycle of disrupted process of economic development.
The minister said that achieving sustainable and inclusive economic growth in an environment of economic sovereignty are the key features of government’s vision of Pakistan’s economy.
Similarly, fiscal deficit would be brought down to 4 percent of GDP and investment to GDP ratio was envisaged to be 20 percent, the minister added.
Highlighting the theme, “My Vision of Pakistan Economy in 2018”, the minister said by strictly adhering to the principles of accountability, transparency and zero tolerance for corruption, the present government, led by Prime Minister, Nawaz Sharif was treading on the path towards complete economic turn around and temporary blurring of its vision of national economy caused by the sit-ins would be overcome in due course of time.
The finance minister added that the economy was weak and fragile when the government assumed power, growth rate had averaged less than 3 percent in the last five years, inflation averaged 12 percent, national reserves dropped below US$ 8 billion and circular debt of Rs 503 billion. Public debt, he said was Rs 3 trillion on 30 June 1999 which rose manifold touching 14.4 trillion mark on June 30, 2013.
Dilating on the remedial measures, the minister said the best way forward was to begin from home, and the government first slashed the expenditure of the PM office by 40 percent and the overall expenditure by 30 percent.
Discretionary and secret service expenditures were discontinued forthwith. He said the government has a firm resolve to promote tax culture and clamp down on tax evasion. It has earned the honour to publish the country’s first every Parliamentarians Tax Directory and Pakistan became only the fourth country to have such a document. FBR almost achieved its revised target of Rs 2,275 billion.
The minister said allocation for National Income Support Programme has been increased to Rs 118 billion FY 2014-15 against Rs 40 billion in FY 2012-13 and the number of beneficiaries has increased from 4.1 million (FY 2012-13) to 5.3 million (FY 2014-15).
Development expenditure under PSDP increased from Rs 324 billion to Rs 441 billion. The minister mentioned that Pakistan successfully tapped international capital markets after a gap of seven years by issuing Eurobonds worth US $ 2 billion.
After a period of five years, multi-lateral donors like the World Bank and the ADB have started providing credit to Pakistan for balance of payment support as well as project financing.
The government, the minister said, fully focused on enhancing power production and made special mention of Dassu Hydropower Project for which financial close had been achieved and Bhasha Dam for which financial options would be explored.
Responding to different questions from participants on the occasion, the minister said that the sit-ins no doubt had negative impact on national economy. The most unfortunate aspect was postponement of the visit by Chinese president who was to sign agreements worth 32 billion dollars for economic development in the country. He said the government in any case wanted a peaceful solution of the sit-ins and did not believe in use of force.
Answering another query, the minister emphasised that foreign investment was always be preferred over foreign aid and the government would uphold this principle. He agreed that security and peaceful environment was a must to attract investment but wiping out extremism was the key to achieve stability. He said the government had given peace a chance but seeing no hope for resolving the issue, an operation had finally been launched to end the scourge of militancy.
At the conclusion, NDU Alpha Division Chief Instructor Major General Musarrat presented a memento to the minister.
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