Finance Minister Ishaq Dar has said the low production of cotton bales may hit the projected growth target for the current fiscal year. Addressing a news conference here on Saturday the minister spoke on almost all the important issues ranging from recently concluded review with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) mission to growth, planned population census and tried to dispel the growing impression that he was running the economy on taking loan from abroad and consequently contributing to debt escalation as well on the issue of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA). The Finance Minister was flanked by Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Federal Board of Revenue Haroon Akhtar and Chairman of the FBR Nisar Khan.
He said that country's GDP growth may be affected due to the less production of cotton bales this year. "We are trying to take growth to over 5 percent," he added. The government has fixed 5.5 percent GDP target for the current fiscal year. Finance Minister said and added that some people are playing politics on the issue of PIA privatisation.
He said the planned population census in the next month may not take place in case of non-availability of armed forces, engaged in the Zarb-e-Azb operation. However, he added that Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) should get in touch with armed forces with respect to security arrangements.
The Finance Minister said that there was no truth in accusations that the government has built up country's foreign exchange reserves by borrowing from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). He said the country has taken $5.27 billion from the IMF and repaid $4.42 billion, leaving a very insignificant amount.
The minister defended himself against the criticism of taking loans on expensive interest rates and stated that there was no truth in such speculations. Dar added that during the tenure of present government, the country's debt increased by Rs 3800 billion thereby taking the total loan to Rs 18,264 billion in November 2015 from Rs 14,400 billion it inherited. He said that the country's foreign debt increased by $3.2 billion to $51.31 billion from $48.13 billion. He said that the government may explore the option of strategic partnership or any other plan with respect to the power distribution companies' privatisation.
The minister further stated that the 10th review of $6.64 billion Extended Fund Facility (EFF) has successfully concluded as the government met all the performance targets of the quarter. Dar stated that tax collection for the second quarter was higher by Rs 35 billion than the target set for the quarter. He added that Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has collected Rs 785 billion against a target of Rs 750 billion for the quarter and total collection for the first six months reached at Rs 1385 billion, Rs 5 billion less than the target of Rs 1390 billion.
He said that tax collection increased by 18.2 per cent during the six months and in January it was recorded at 21 per cent. Inflation has come down to 2.1% and was optimistic that it would remain around four percent by the end of year. About voluntary tax compliance scheme, he said the government would ensure its implementation with the co-operation of traders.
With respect to National Finance Commission award, he said that Ministry of Finance has moved the summary to the President for reconstituting the Commission as federal government received the name of technical member from Punjab. Dar said that Saudi Arabia is also interested to invest in Pakistan as was being done by the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). Dar said that a technical delegation of Saudi Arabia would visit Pakistan to explore investment opportunities in the country in the next three weeks.
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