ISLAMABAD – Advisor to Prime Minister on Finance Abdul Hafeez Shaikh sayscrucial decisions are being made to correct the course of economy andstabilize it.
Unveiling the Economic Survey 2018-19 in Islamabad on Monday, he saidPakistan is endowed with natural resources including fertile land, longcoast line, hardworking people, rich minerals and a number of other assets.
Hafeez Shaikh said the government inherited a weak economy with a totaldebt touching 31000 billion rupees which were taken over the previous years.
He said in the coming years, 3000 billion rupees will have to be paid interms of interest only on these loans.
The Advisor on Finance said 97 billion dollars were taken as external loanswhile the wealth producing capacity of the country was increased by zeropercent due to no raise in exports in all these years.
This is an alarming situation for the country’s economy and the rupee isfacing a lot of pressure.
Hafeez Shaikh said 2300 billion rupees were spent beyond income thatresulted in printing more currency notes and leading towards inflation.
He said Prime Minister Imran Khan has shown the commitment to makedifficult decisions in order to change things on permanent basis.
Hafeez Shaikh said the PTI government took important decisions to correctthe course of economy.
For this purpose, duties were increased on imports to restrict the currentaccount deficit. Incentives were given to export industries to increasetheir share.
He said Prime Minister Imran Khan through his personal efforts received 9.2billion dollars from friendly countries. A deferred oil payment facilityfrom Saudi Arabia, UAE and Islamic Development Banks was achieved.
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It was also decided to forge a partnership with IMF to provide a soundfooting to the economy and also show the commitment that we are ready forfinancial discipline. A successful partnership of 6.2 billion dollars withIMF was achieved.
The Advisor on Finance said the public sector institutions will bestrengthened.
He said in the past the public utility companies as well as transportation,insurance and other institutions were made hollow from inside due tocorruption.
The money which was to be used on health, education and other facilities topeople was rather spent on these white elephants to the tune of 1300billion rupees.
The Advisor said effort has been made to put minimum burden on poorsegments of the society.
He said 216 billion rupees have been earmarked in the next budget toprovide subsidy to consumers who are using low consumption of electricity.
He said the amount for financial handouts to the poor is being doubled inthe coming budget.
Enumerating the priorities of the government, Hafeez Sheikh said ourpriorities are to stabilize the economy addressing immediate threats,improve relations with foreign countries to reap benefits, strengthendomestic industry, give a pivotal focus to marginalized people, andconvince the rich to pay their due share of taxes.
He said the tax collection is very low and a large segment of thepopulation does not want to give its share in the form of taxes.
