Inflation will go down gradually, says Shamshad

ISLAMABAD: Caretaker Finance Minister Shamshad Akhtar has said inflation would reduce gradually due to improvement in the financial management of the country. “The financial management has been improved—you would see a gradual reduction in the inflation,” she told the Senate on Friday.

Speaking on the floor of the house, Akhtar said, the effective policies of the caretaker government were resulting in improvement in the economic conditions.

To a question posed by Behramand Tangi from the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), seeking the details of the amount collected under the Chief Justice-Prime Minister Dam Fund, the caretaker minister said, as of July 26, 2023, an amount of 11,466,937,658 rupees was received in Chief Justice-Prime Minister Dam Fund.

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An amount of Rs 6,295,938,962 was earned as profit on investments of the funds in this account with total funds calculated at Rs 17,862,876,620, the written reply stated.

So far, no amount has been withdrawn/ utilised from the dam fund account maintained with the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), it added. As per directives of the Supreme Court from July 2018, the monies shall only be released from the fund account based on the directives of the apex court, according to the reply.

She said the Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) approved the Stand-By Arrangement (SBA) worth $3 billion, of which $1.2 billion had been disbursed.

The SBA would have two reviews which would be held/ completed in November 2023 and March 2024, Akhtar added. The minister said the completion of each review would lead to disbursement of the remaining amount.

To a question from Samina Mumtaz Zehri from Balochistan Awami Party (BAP), seeking reasons for the massive depreciation of Pakistani currency indicating also the measures being taken by the SBP to control the same, the caretaker finance minister, in another written reply, said, starting second week of August 2023, the rupee came under pressure against the dollar, mainly on account of uncertainty related to the transition of government to the interim setup, continuity of economic reforms and IMF programme.

The depreciation continued till the first week of September 2023 when exchange rate peaked at 307.10 against dollar on September 5, 2023, it said. Since then, rupee started appreciating against dollar as a result measures taken by government and SBP, the reply said.

Responding to another question, this time from Mushtaq Ahmed Khan from Jamaat-e-Islami (JI), regarding current salaries and benefits being received by the officers and employees of SBP, the caretaker minister said, SBP was a corporate body established under the State Bank of Pakistan 1956 Act.

“The Parliament approved the autonomy of SBP—if anyone had any objection over salaries, the Parliament should not have approved the autonomy,” she said, adding that salaries in banking sector were higher compared to other sectors. The salaries in SBP are increased keeping this factor in view, she said. The Senate was adjourned till Monday.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023