ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Finance and Revenue Shaukat Tarin on Thursday said that the prevailing economic challenges were the consequence of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz government’s poor economic management, which had also caused $20 billion loss to the national economy.
Addressing a virtual press conference flanked by Minister for Energy and Petroleum Hammad Azhar and Minister for Industries and Production Makhdoom Khusro Bakhtiar, he said that the last PML-N government had shown artificial economic growth by borrowing heavily in the country’s history. It also increased revenue growth by only 2.5 percent, he added.
Contrarily, he said, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf government increased revenue by 20 percent in every fiscal year and would take it to Rs7,000 billion in the coming years.
He said that the PTI government inherited an economy in a shambles, with high inflation and massive circular debt due to bad decisions of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz regime.
Tarin said that the government had to approach the International Monetary Fund to support the deteriorated economy and accept tough conditions such as high power tariffs.
However, now the government’s focus was on providing relief to the masses in the upcoming budget 2021-22 and that was why it was conveyed to the IMF in recent talks that the electricity and gas prices would not be increased, he added.
He said that former finance minister Miftah Ismail of the PML-N, during his tenure, had raised the petroleum development levy up to Rs30, while the present government had reduced it by Rs2 to Rs3.
Today the circular debt was declining and the government would take more steps to further reduce it, he added.
Tarin said the government was fully focused on the power sector, particularly to overcome the main challenge of circular debt. Its main priority was to control the electricity prices for providing maximum relief to both the domestic and industrial consumers.
He said that the measures adopted by the government since its inception had boosted the revenue collection, which had crossed the Rs4 trillion benchmark till date during the current fiscal year now, which was a historic achievement, and it would hopefully rise to around Rs5. 8 trillion during the next financial year.
The increased revenue collection would help decrease the fiscal deficit and provide more resources for the country’s economic development, he added.
The minister said that the government would not impose any new tax in the upcoming budget, rather it would broaden the tax base through the use of technology.
The prime minister was worried about the poor people and did not want to burden them further, he added.
Tarin said that the fiscal year 2021-22 would be a year of growth not only for the country but also for the deprived classes of society as it would encompass provision of better facilities of education, health and employment.
The minister said that it was the government’s top priority to alleviate poverty, by promoting skills development practices among 4 million families, besides providing them housing facilities and health cards.
Likewise, the government would announce steps to make the industry sector more efficient to enhance exports, he added.
Speaking on the occasion, Minister for Energy Hammad Azhar said that statistics presented regarding poverty by the PML-N leaders were totally incorrect.
He said that the current account deficit had surged to record level, while exports had also declined during their government.
He said that the opposition could not digest the current economic growth and presented false statistics.
The minister conceded that there was inflation, saying the government was making all-out efforts to control it. Today the economy was on the right track owing to the better policies of the PTI government. The foreign reserves were continuously increasing while exports, tax revenue and large-scale manufacturing had also witnessed an upward trend.
About 4 percent economic growth would be achieved during the current fiscal year, he hoped.
Minister for Industries and Production Makhdoom Khusro Bakhtiar said the PML-N regime had left behind a fragile economy with huge foreign loans, which had to be returned by the incumbent PTI government.
The PML-N government had artificially stabled the rupee, he added.
Khusro said that the national economy was now improving and strengthening due to the prudent policies of government under the leadership of Prime Minister Imran Khan.
The minister said that the government’s full focus on sustainable economic growth through prudent policies. Agriculture and construction sectors had witnessed record growth.
The Gross Domestic Product growth rate would hopefully touch 4.8 percent during the current fiscal year, he added.
