ISLAMABAD: Ministry of Finance (MoF) has said that Pakistan’s total debt stands at $ 210.40 billion which is 78.4 per cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
The MoF’s representative gave these statistics during the meeting of Senate’s Standing Committee on Finance and Revenue, saying that the volume of debt in 2013 was $ 140.20 billion, 60 per cent of GDP.
Terming the huge volume of debt “alarming”, committee’s Chairman Saleem Mandviwalla said that it was in violation of the Constitution to get debt more than 60 per cent of the GDP. “Why the parliament was not informed about the alarming number of debt percentage when it crossed 60 per cent?” he asked the ministry’s officials.
“Taking parliament into confidence before crossing the limit was mandatory,” remarked the committee’s chairman.
Other members of the committee also showed serious concerns over the volume of debt received by the government so far.
The MoF also informed the committee that government was to pay $ 6 billion in this financial year out of which at least $2.40 billion have been paid so far.
In reply to a query, the ministry’s officials informed that deficit in the current fiscal year will be $ 14 billion.
To a question, Minister of State for Finance Rana Afzal said that government is not going for another loan programme of International Monitory Fund (IMF).
“To avoid IMF, the government is getting loans from everywhere,” remarked Saleem Mandviwalla.
