Increased focus on debt reduction damaging economy: PBIF

KARACHI: The President of Pakistan Businessmen and Intellectuals Forum, Mian Zahid Hussain, has said that coronavirus and subsequent lockdown have damaged all the economies, but authorities are more interested in fixing unachievable tax targets which will further hurt the economy.

He said the increased focus on debt reduction and revenue generation had damaged the economy. Mian Zahid Hussain said that India, Bangladesh, Nepal and many other regional countries were facing debt problem for decades, but their governments had not mismanaged the problem.

He said that regional countries were dealing with debts and current account deficits in a better way which was evident from their economic success.

He noted that during the last 32 years Pakistan had approached the IMF 13 times to avoid bankruptcy, Sri Lanka six times, Bangladesh four times while India sought IMF money only once which proved that their economic management was better than that of Pakistan's.

The regional countries used the IMF money for development which helped them transform their countries into economic powerhouses while we had wasted the money we borrowed.

Not only the regional economies but also the economies of the countries like the US and the UK had also been facing deficits, but these deficits had not unnerved the governments in those countries to do more damage to their own economies.

He said that the government should not panic over the problem of deficits. Instead, it should reduce its tax collection targets and provide an enabling environment to the investors to bring the economy back on track.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2020