ISLAMABAD – The government has decided to announce a package of Rs 200billion for exporters to promote exports besides increasing production andjob opportunities in the country, Advisor to Prime Minster on Finance andRevenue Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh said on Monday.
Addressing a press conference here, the advisor said that the State Bank ofPakistan had also decided to increase loans for the exporters by Rs 100billion.The advisor was flanked by Special Assistant to Prime Minister onInformation Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan, Minister for Economic Affairs HammadAzhar and Chairman Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) Shabbar Zaidi.
Hafeez Shaikh informed that the government had also decided to allocateadditional Rs 250 billion to resolve the problem of circular debts in thecountry’s power sector.Furthermore, the government he said had also allocated an amount ofadditionalRs 30 billion for ‘Naya Pakistan Housing Scheme’ and this amount would beutilized in term of various subsidies to be given to the builders.
He said the stakeholders involved in construction sector would also begiven special tax concession.
Hafeez Shaikh said during first four months of current fiscal year, thegovernment had achieved remarkable successes on economic front as the tradedeficit continued to reduce resulting in increase of foreign exchangereserves in the country.
He said after a big gap of five years, the country’s exports had startedincreasing now by 4% besides he said the FBR tax revenues had also grown by16% in four months compared to same period of last year.
The advisor on finance pointed out that cement production also increased by4.5% which was evident of the fact that the country’s construction sectorwas growing.
“The country’s exchange rate remained stable during first four months offiscal year 2019-20 and stock market had also shown a remarkable recovery,”he said adding the government had paid $2.1 billion debts obtained by theprevious government.
He said that Pakistan’s economic sector had comfortably stabilized nowwhich was also being endorsed by the international institutions includingInternational Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank.
“Last week, the IMF had praised Pakistan government’s efforts ofintroducing reforms in economic sector and said that it had met all thetargets that were set by the IMF for its programme with the country,” heremarked.
He informed that after successful dialogue with the IMF, it had alsoapproved release of second tranche of US $450 million to Pakistan.
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To a question, Hafeez said the pace of economic growth in the country wouldbe further increased in coming days and the economic growth rate target setby the government for the year 2019-20 could easily be surpassed.
To another question, he said the government had allocated record Rs 152billion for the development of erstwhile FATA during current fiscal year.
Responding to a query regarding discount rate, the advisor saiddetermination of discount rate was the job of monitory policy committee andthe government had given full independence to the SBP’s monetary policy.
He said the committee determined the discount rate by keeping in viewvarious factors.He said the government was fully focused on controlling the prices of dailyuse essential items.“We are also taking steps to minimize the role of middle men due to whichthe price of food items jumps when they reach the end consumers.”
He said the government had also decided not to borrow money from the StateBank of Pakistan due to which Pakistan did not print even a single rupeeduring last four months.
The government he said had also decided to provide Rs 6 billion to UtiltyStores to ensure availability of essential daily use items on subsidizedrates.
To a query, he said the previous government wasted US$ 20 to 25 billion ofnation only to artificially maintaining the exchange rate of Pakistan rupeeagainst US dollar.
He said for last four months, the price of petrol price was not increaseddespite the fact that its price in the international level increased.
