Islamabad:
Finance Minister Miftah Ismail has said that there is no secret that the political situation of the country has a big hand in the devaluation of the rupee in the last 2 days.
While giving a press conference in Islamabad, the Finance Minister said that the dollar is not only the currency of Pakistan, but it is flying high compared to the currency of the whole world. has increased more than due to which all currencies have lost value.
He said that due to high imports, there was pressure on the rupee in the last 6 months. In the last 3 months, we tried to reduce the imports. But its imports rose 120 percent last month due to rising energy prices.
He said that last month there were imports of 7.4 billion dollars, of which 3.7 billion dollars were energy imports while 3.7 billion dollars were other imports.
He says that the LC margin given in the previous government did not make a difference, the ban on the import of vehicles and mobile phones has benefited.
Miftah Ismail said that we finally got the fruits of the measures we took in July, two days ago on July 18, our imports were only 2.6 billion dollars, this is an indication that more than 5 and a half billion dollars in the whole month. There will be no imports.
The finance minister said that our effort is to bring imports equal to exports and remittances because we do not have the capacity in foreign reserves and we do not have any other reserves, so balance is necessary.
He said that Pakistan usually has 7 to 8 days of diesel, but today Pakistan has 60 days of diesel, so next month diesel imports will be less in Pakistan and overall fuel imports will also be less.
Miftah Ismail said that the agreement with the IMF has been reached, there is no obstacle now and inshallah we will not take any step that will create any obstacle, after this agreement the World Bank and Asian Development Bank financing will also be done It has been opened and inshAllah that money will also start coming.
The finance minister said that I have already informed that a friend has asked us for oil financing of one billion and 20 million dollars. 10 million dollars will be received.
He said that there is another friendly country that wants to invest one billion dollars in Pakistan’s stock exchange.
Miftah Ismail said that another friendly country will also give gas on delayed payments which will be 200 to 300 million, another friendly country has asked to deposit 2 billion dollars while another friendly country has asked to deposit 2 billion SDRs. It has been asked to give more than 2 billion dollars, all these together make a total of 8 billion dollars that will be provided to us this fiscal year.
The finance minister said that the dollar is not only the currency of Pakistan, but it is flying high compared to the currency of the whole world. has lost value.
He said that in an uncertain situation, investors around the world consider the dollar as a safe investment, so the value of the dollar increases against everything else.
He said that for the same reason the rupee also lost its value, but there is no secret that the political situation of the country had a big hand in the decline in the value of the rupee in the last two days. It does not come, which would give such a blow to the rupee.
He said that today we have given permission to buy 2 lakh tons of urea and have also bought 3 lakh tons of wheat, whereas a few days ago we had bought 5 lakh tons of wheat. They are also taking steps to stop smuggling of urea fertilizer, with ample stock available.
The finance minister said that by the grace of Allah, our economy is going well, tax collection is also coming well, the reason for the difficulties faced was the debt of 20 thousand dollars taken in the last 3 years.
Miftah Ismail said that this year, God willing, the tax-to-GDP ratio will be increased, the budget deficit will be reduced and inflation will be controlled in the next 2 to 3 months.
In response to the question regarding the IMF agreement, Miftah Ismail said that he has told the IMF that he will strictly implement the agreement, Pakistan suffered from the economic crisis because the previous government had broken the agreement, but many Hardly restored.
The finance minister said that there is no pre-condition on the price of gas with the IMF, but there is a condition to increase the price of electricity.
Miftah Ismail said that there was a proposal to increase the price of electricity by 7 rupees 91 paise, the government did not burden small consumers and there will be no increase in electricity rate for 60 percent of domestic consumers.
He said that according to the law, gas tariffs are bound to be automatically revised, but gas and electricity tariffs will not be increased for 50 percent of Pakistanis belonging to the middle class, the increase will be applied only to wealthy Pakistanis.
