KARACHI: United Business Group (UBG) President Zubair Tufail said that due to the delay in the IMF’s debt recovery programme for Pakistan, the country’s economy is facing relatively high pressure, domestic and foreign investment has decreased, while exports have also decreased.
There has been a significant decrease, according to the recent report, due to the delay in the IMF programme, foreign funding has fallen by more than 60% and during the first 10 months of the current financial year, from July 2022 to April 2023, only 8 billion 12 million dollars of external funds have been received, while in this period a total of 22 billion 650 million dollars of foreign funding was to be obtained.
According to United Business Group, Gulzar Feroze, Zubair Tufail said that the federal budget is expected to be announced by June 9 or 10 next month, but due to the delay in approving the loan for Pakistan under the loan rehabilitation programme for the IMF, the federal budget is delayed. The process is also feared to be affected.
President UBG said that although the country’s exports have decreased due to the unstable economy and political instability, on the other hand, the export of services from the country has increased by one percent to reach $6 billion, although it is like salt in flour.
No, but it is certainly welcome, during July 2022 to April 2023, exports of services increased by one percent on annual basis, but imports also decreased by 39 percent.
Zubair Tufail said that exporters are also facing financial problems because they are not getting sales tax refunds on time, due to non-receipt of refunds worth billions of rupees, there is shortage of capital in the local market and exporters are facing difficulties in fulfilling export orders.
The refunds system needs to be reformed, the existing refunds process should be revised and exporters should be sent their refunds directly to their account with speed so that they can continue to export smoothly.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2023
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