Finance Minister, Ishaq Dar on Saturday became visibly agitated by a question raised by Business Recorder. The question was: "Where was Rs 400 billion circular debt parked in budget documents and its absence may reflect a possible ghapla [manipulation] of fiscal deficit?" The Finance Minister didn't like the use of words ghapla, terming it inappropriate. He asked the BR correspondent to be careful about the use of words.
He accused him of lacking knowledge, maintaining that the circular debt has nothing to do with budget. "There is no provision of circular debt in the budget. Payables and receivables are the responsibility of Ministry of Water and Power and all the set up under this Ministry functions independently. They are only given subsidy in the budget. We give subsidy only to the power sector in accordance Finance Ministry's calculations and on the basis of bill for which provision is made in the budget," he clarified.
Dar flanked by the newly-appointed Prime Minister's Special Assistant on Revenue, Haroon Akhtar Khan, further contended that the circular debt was not Rs 400 billion as the Water and Power Ministry had given him the circular debt figure of around Rs 270 billion.
According to budget 2013-14 documents, Ishaq Dar soon after taking charge of Finance Ministry, adjusted Rs 326 billion (1.5 percent of GDP) out of the then total Rs 498 billion circular debt on the second last day of the fiscal year. His objective: to ensure that the deficit reflected a higher budget deficit that would be attributed to the previous government (PPP led coalition government and caretakers).