ISLAMABAD: Federal Finance Minister Miftah Ismail has said that the government will restrict imports for another 3 months even if it does not slow down the development.
Speaking at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) ceremony, Miftah Ismail said that I will not allow increase in imports for the next three months and during this time we will also prepare a policy.
“I can understand that this will reduce the growth rate to some extent but I have no other option,” he said.
Talking about the exchange rate, he said that the outflow of dollar is increasing than the inflow and that is the reason why the value of rupee has decreased sharply against the dollar during the last month.
The finance minister said that if a small shopkeeper knows that his daily sales are 30 thousand rupees while his stock purchase is up to 80 thousand rupees, then this shopkeeper needs to buy less stock and we have done the same. Imports were brought down from $7 billion to $4.9 billion and all the problems went away.
He said the government’s import restrictions would affect the automobile and electronic equipment industries, adding that he did not want to create unemployment but his first priority was to reduce imports.
Miftah Ismail said that when there was a lot of pressure, we imported oil and gas in large quantities, at that time we have diesel and petrol reserves of 30 days while Pakistan usually has 6 days of diesel and 10 days of petrol. There is petrol, similarly we have reserves of furnace oil up to 6 months.
He said that we are very good in terms of our energy security and energy supply and other obligations and we will control imports for the next three months.
He pointed out that the country’s import bill was $7.7 billion in June and if the current account deficit widens to that level, it will put pressure on the rupee.
He said that in the last financial year, Pakistan’s import bill was 80 billion dollars while its exports were 31 billion dollars, no country can be developed and stable with this kind of current account deficit.
The federal minister said that although running a small deficit is a good thing for developing countries, Pakistan has failed to use its long-term deficit productively.
Expressing regret, he said that the Muslim League (N) government had installed power plants generating 11,500 megawatts of electricity during its previous regime, but doubling the production of electricity did not double the growth of the industrial and export sectors. happened
He said that other countries like China set up factories after setting up power plants, but we only built wedding halls and did not earn foreign exchange.
Miftah Ismail said that he believes in export expansion model and not import substitution, the government needs to control the budget deficit which requires immediate steps.
He further said that the economic situation of Bangladesh, Vietnam and Pakistan was similar in the nineties, now their exports are 100 billion dollars and Pakistan’s exports are 30 billion dollars and everywhere they have to ask for money.
“It is not right, I think it is time we act like a mature, dignified nation,” he said. Need money.
Miftah Ismail said that when the Muslim League (N) government came to power, the country was close to bankruptcy, that’s why he approached the International Monetary Fund (IMF) a few days after becoming the finance minister.
He said that we had no other option, currently the country has reserves of 10 billion dollars while it has to return 21 billion dollars next year, this is not debt servicing, only debt repayment.
He said that the IMF will come, then the World Bank will come, then the Asian Development Bank, then a Chinese bank, the Asian Infrastructure Bank has also said that if the World Bank will give a loan, then they will also give, friendly countries too. Politely encouraging us to get money from the IMF because nobody wants to back a sinking country.
The finance minister said that for this the government had to take some very difficult decisions, we increased the prices of petrol which led to inflation but how far can we intervene if the dollar payment is more than the income because on intervention IM F has restrictions.
He said that it is important to understand what kind of development the country wants, boom and bust cycle or sustainable development, if we make the lower class people a little richer, local consumption will increase because their consumption needs will increase. Includes local products.
He said that the government has given priority to two sectors, one is agriculture and the other is exports, incentives have already been given for agriculture and now a good policy based on incentives for exporters will be introduced soon.
Miftah Ismail said that we do not want development without exports, development is favorable only when it is through exports.
Asked if the rupee is undervalued, he replied that no one knows the exact figure, the government is driving the forex market to a point where dollar inflows will be out and the exchange rate will be stable. Will be.
Talking about the withdrawal of fixed tax on small traders, he said that he believes that the imposed tax is very reasonable and good.
Finance Minister
Nah said that we are asking only 3 thousand rupees on a bill of 30 thousand rupees, no shopkeeper earns less than 1 lakh rupees per month while salaried people who earn that amount pay more tax.
He said that he promised specific payments to the IMF and said that we will make sure that if there is a loss in revenue, we will cover it, but to be honest, $7 billion. Has been damaged.
He said that in good days there is a bad day but now we are in the right direction and if we control the imports for three to four months there will be improvement, but I personally am not in favor of it so in some time we will We will increase imports and now we have to control the budget deficit because during the Muslim League (N) era, the budget deficit was 16 billion rupees, while the budget deficit in the previous government was 3500 billion rupees.
The federal minister said that we all want a Pakistan that has imports of 40 to 50 billion dollars, which is up to 30 billion dollars at present.
