State Minister for Revenue Hammad Azhar Tuesday informed the Senate that a briefing would be given to the concerned standing committees of Senate and National Assembly once the package with International Monetary Fund (IMF) is finalised.
He stated this in response to Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Senator Javed Abbasi's demand that the Parliament must be kept abreast with the details of any package being finalised with the IMF. The minister alleged that the opposition is playing to the gallery, as previously 17 such packages were agreed upon but details have never been shared with the Parliament.
The House was informed that the government has obtained foreign loans to the tune of $1,681 million during September 2018-January 2019 and $77 million as grants, whereas the net domestic loans during the same period stood at Rs 1,185 billion.
The Question Hour was marred by suspension of the proceedings for 15 minutes on account of non-availability of ministers concerned as the House was told they were in attendance of the federal cabinet meeting.
Former Chairman Raza Rabbani and PML-N Senator Javed Abbasi slammed the absence of ministers from the House and wondered how the government can prefer the cabinet meeting to the Parliament.
He contended that the Parliament has already been rendered redundant while there is a huge cabinet, consisting of federal ministers, advisors and special assistants, but there is none in the House during the question hour. He suggested the Question Hour be suspended till the time the ministers make their way to the House. "You may pack the House up if the ministers are not willing to come," he asserted.
Senator Abbasi said that the issue is not of two-three ministers' absence rather it is the government of technocrats which is not answerable to the Parliament while Prime Minister Imran Khan, who had vowed to frequently attend the parliamentary proceedings and be part of the zero hour to answer questions, had come to the Senate only once very briefly since the new government was formed.
"By not coming to the Parliament, a message is being given to the legislature and the world that the government and the Parliament are not functioning," he retorted.
Deputy Chairman Senate Saleem Mandviwalla then suspended the House for 15 minutes but with a word of caution that this should not be repeated in future.
Minister for Revenue Hammad Azhar explained that $741 million was bilateral loans, $429 million was secured from commercial banks and $511 million was multilateral loans. Likewise, the domestic loans consisted of T bills MRTBs worth Rs 964 billion, Rs 39 billion worth PIBs and Sukuks and NSS/ prize bonds and others amount to Rs 182 billion and their average cost was 9.5 per cent, 12.5 per cent and 10.2 per cent respectively.
About a proposal of debt retirement under CPEC or any other arrangement, floated by PPP Senator A Rehman Malik, the minister said that with global economic slowdown, this might not be possible, whereas the total worth of CPEC was $50-60 billion.
He pointed out Pakistan had to retire loans worth $37 billion in next four-and-a-half-year while $9.2 billion is to be retired during this year.
Replying to the criticism about taking massive loans, the minister said that the IMF Mission chief had said that Pakistan never faced so much debt burden as it faces now. The minister explained that a big chunk of loans is being used for repayments of loans taken previously. He noted during the last 24 months of its tenure, the PML-N government secured $20 billion loans, whereas the foreign exchange reserves plunged from $19 billion to $9.5 billion.
Hammad Azhar said that present account deficit decreased by 44 per cent in the course of the tenure of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf's (PTI) government. He said that that the federal government doesn't need to artificially manage the value of rupee, as it is making efforts to boost exports.
He said that the government has formulated new guidelines to cease transactions through Benami accounts.
Azhar said that the government authorities inherited Rs 423 billion deficit in public sector and added that they launched reforms to revive nation's financial system.
Through a written reply, Minister for Planning and Development and Reforms Makhdoom Khusro Bakhtyar told the House that a total of 822 projects are being financed during 2018-2019 and of these, 134 projects are facing cost overrun.
Answering a supplementary question, he noted that in 2017, 343 unapproved projects of Rs 2,000 billion were made part of PDSP, while only Rs 55 billion were earmarked for them.
He continued that after the 18th Amendment, decisions would have to be made by the federal government about the projects which would be of benefit to only one province and that particular province should allocate funding from its own funds.
To a question by Senator Rahila Magsi of the PML-N, Hammad Azhar said that the United Arab Emirates had provided a deposit of dollars 2 billion to the State Bank of Pakistan for a period of two years at a profit rate of 3.0 per cent per annum.
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