Islamabad:
Pakistan crossed many “red lines” for the International Monetary Fund Program and committed his “dignity” to close the external financing gap, said Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Tuesday while narrating his first year fight to remove the country from the edge of the breach.
The prime minister, who celebrated the year of his government in power in an unusual way by holding an open cabinet meeting, told the history of the past for a year to obtain foreign loans and meet the demands of the IMF with the aim of avoiding sovereign breach.
We crossed many red lines in the IMF and everyone worked very hard to meet the IMF conditions, said Prime Minister in his speech to the special meeting of the federal cabinet, which people from different areas of life and journalists also attended.
The prime minister talked about the IMF conditions at a time when the fund team is already in the city to review the country’s performance before approved the second section of loans of $ 1 billion.
It was the second meeting of the Cabinet in the last 11 years that was open for the media. At the beginning of January 2014, former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif celebrated a cabinet meeting in the presence of the media in which the then finance minister Ishaq Dar had presented a presentation on the state of the economy.
For the installation of extended funds (EFF), the IMF demanded to organize $ 5 billion to fill the empty of external financing and the money does not grow in the trees or could therefore be extracted, me and the head of the army staff went to friendly countries, said Prime Minister.
He narrated another conversation between the ruling of the United Arab Emirates and he about the re -registered of the mature debt of $ 2 billion. The debt matured in January, which the EAU extended for one more year.
During his last visit, the Eau ruler said that the $ 2 billion debt was late and what was the plan, said Prime Minister. Then, after our conversion, the Eau ruler said the debt was transmitted, Sharif said.
“When we are going to ask for money, we commit our dignity,” said Shehbaz Sharif.
In 2018, the then Minister of Commerce, Abdul Razak Dawood, had narrated a similar situation when former Prime Minister Imran Khan went to Saudi Arabia in search of more loans. He had secured the $ 6 billion package. Dawood had described the trip as “horrible.”
In the last year, 20 licenses on land and 40 on the high seas have been issued for oil and gas exploration and these explorations would help pay the foreign debt of $ 130 billion, said the Vice Prime Minister Ishaq Dar.
Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Azerbaijan and Kuwait have planned to accumulate $ 27 billion and the government is working on offering financing projects, said Ishaq.
The Minister of Planning, Ahsan Iqbal, revealed that Pakistan had breached internally in April 2022 when the Ministry of Finance had refused to release the development budget for the quarter of April and June of that fiscal year. It had happened for the first time that no development budget was launched in any quarter, he added.
In his speech, the prime minister said that during the last year, it was a matter of satisfaction that not a single case of corruption had emerged a false unique accusation in this regard was leveled by the opposition.
However, his government is now dealing with an investigation against 37 supposedly corrupt customs officials who have been appointed by a main intelligence agency as part of a contraband network of 78 people.
The prime minister said they should work hard to relieve the misfortunes of society with all kinds of assistance and compassion, especially in the sacred month of Ramazan.
Sharif criticized the bureaucracy and said that many of them do not work and excellent lame excuses.
The prime minister said the Government would distribute a RSZZAN package of RS20 billion to benefit four million deserving families through a digital wallet system. Each family would obtain RS5,000 each, so the new system will close the doors in all kinds of accusations of bad financial management that had seriously spoiled the operation of entities such as Utility Stores Corporation, said Shehbaz Sharif.
The prime minister said that with the hard work, the government managed to achieve economic change and expel the country outside the financial narrow. The prime minister said that all macroeconomic indicators were on high scale and asked members to work hard with dedication and commitment, since they were previous requirements to make Pakistan an economy of one billion dollars by 2035.
Sharif stressed the need to connect the losses of RS850 billion incurred by state companies that make losses, qualifying them ‘bottomless wells’, which needed to be plugged in, in addition to the need to finish the circular debt in the electricity sector. He expressed the optimism that with collective efforts, Pakistan would emerge stronger and more stressed in developing a culture of forgiveness, affection and tolerance in society.
The Vice Prime Minister said that the diplomatic isolation of Pakistan was over and that the country has now become a non-permanent member of the UNSC by 2025-26, adding after a 27-year-old gap, multilateral international conferences such as SCO and education of girls in Pakistan were held.
Economic stabilization
The Minister of Finance, Muhammad Aurengzeb, gave an overview of the economy and said that the Pakistan stock exchange had witnessed a 71% increase in return, while the surplus of the current account was the highest in the last 20 years. I appreciate that the plans for the dignization of 43 ministries and their 400 departments were underway, while the pension reforms and the agricultural tax were first introduced.
The minister said FBR’s income increased by 26%. The other main steps were the introduction of a faceless evaluation system that saw the income in 16% in the shortest time, he added.
Aurengzeb said that all international monetary institutions had praised the economic achievements of the titular government in Pakistan.
The Ministry of Finance addressed the issue of pension liabilities and the Direct Tax Pension Plan was notified in July last year. The pension fund has also been created and multiple pensions are finished, he added.
Aurangzeb said that, for the first time, the Federal Government repurred RS1 Billions of debt to relieve reimbursement pressures. He said that the first green Sukuk will be broadcast soon in the PSX and that Panda bonds will be raised before the end of this calendar year in the China market to diversify the sources of financing and reduce costs.
The Ministry of Finance signed the National Fiscal Pact, established a fiscal policy office and reactivated the National Tax Council, said Aurengzeb.
Power situation
The Minister of Power Awais Ahmed Laghari informed the Cabinet about the reforms of the energy sector, saying that these efforts had resulted in the reduction of industrial cross subsidies of RS151 billion. Until February of this year, the price per unit of electricity had been reduced by RS4.96, benefiting both consumers and industry, said the Minister of Energy.
Laghari also said that the contracts of 14 independent energy producers have been reviewed and that five inefficient IPP agreements have been completed and the eight -plants Bagazo agreements have been reached. These steps resulted in RS1.33 billion life savings, he added.
The Federal Minister of Information Technology, Shaza Fatima Khawaja, also presented a report on the performance of his ministry saying that 15 million new broadband subscribers were added while the telecommunications sector contributed with RS341 billion to the national economy.
Speaking on the occasion, Defense Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif said that the last year of the government was like a trip to arise from the ashes. He said that an opposition party that had enjoyed power in the past, had policies that did not synchronize with national interests. The same part was to create chaos in the country and invite foreigners to interfere with the country’s internal affairs, he added.
