The economic team of the Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz in a briefing said that inflation will not be reduced in the coming months due to Pakistan Tehreek Insaf policies.
The former finance minister along with former Chairman Privatization Commission Zubair Umar and Musaddiq Malik in a media briefing informed that the incumbent PMLN led government inherited a fragile economy despite this we will try to provide maximum relief to the low-income of society.
Miftah Ismail said that everyone responded positively to the relief package announced by Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif for the low-income group to Rs25,000 from Rs22,000 in wages and a 10 per cent increase in pension.
The last government has not increased the pension so we have announced a 10 per cent increase, he said that this will benefit the pensioners against inflation.
He also requested the owners of private companies to enhance the salary of their employees by 10 per cent.
He also said that the stock market has been going upwards for the last two days and the dollar has also decreased to Rs181.3 from Rs188.
He said that the PTI government estimated a Rs4,000 billion budget deficit but Miftah claimed that it would be Rs6,400 billion including Rs800 billion supplementary grants.
The deficit in the five-year tenure of PMLN was around Rs6400 billion and the Imran Khan government did this in one year.
We have to give Rs220 billion out of 800 billion to SNGPL on account of losses of RLNG or LNG besides we have to give Rs80 billion to Gencos, he added.
The previous government has laid a landmine of Rs373 billion for Shahbaz Sharif, advisors or ministers of the Khan government were misrepresenting that we can finance ourselves.
Miftah said that this package is increasing the deficit and the IMF also has not agreed with this, however he said that we will restart the negotiations with the IMF.
He also claimed that the PTI government has put the country’s sovereignty at stake. He vowed that our Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif will control this deficit
He also said that expenditure would be Rs8,700 billion in the ongoing fiscal year and if we add these Rs800 billion then this reaches Rs9,500 billion against the budget estimation of Rs7,500 billion.
The PTI government took more than 80 per cent of loans in almost four years comparable to loans taken in the last 70 years.
He also said that the Finance Ministry has also estimated an Rs1,650 billion primary deficit against the budget estimate of Rs900 billion.
On the other hand, the average deficit in the last PMLN tenure was Rs1,600 billion including the interest rate and debt servicing.
The former finance minister also said that the trade deficit would also touch 45 billion dollars as imports will touch 75 billion dollars whereas export will be recorded at around 30 billion dollars.
He said that foreign currency reserves have been declining and it is most important not to increase but stabilize the foreign currency reserves.
He said that the IMF is important due to the fragile economic situation. There is no need of giving amnesty schemes. Imran Khan always speaks against the amnesty and interestingly, the PTI government offered to white the future income through the real estate amnesty.
He said that PTI has left very serious issues as inflation for poor masses has increased to 19 per cent whereas rural inflation has also enhanced.
PMLN leader Musaddiq Malik said that the country’s expenditure has increased whereas revenue decreased due to policies as well as corruption of the last government.
Inflation has surged to 13 per cent, while food inflation also crossed the double-digit.
The government provided relief to rich people through Covid amount given by international organizations.
Former chairman PC Zubair Umar said that the PTI government did not have any plan for the country. They made blunders as the interest rate increased to 13.25 per cent which affected the businesses. On the other hand, the last government also made a massive devaluation of the rupee due to which the business community cannot understand what to do.
They not only increased gas and electricity prices but also enhanced taxes.
They have laid the mines for the PMLN government and literally the PTI government made blunders to the economy.
Replying to questions, Miftah Ismail said that the PMLN government will complete the remaining three reviews of the IMF program. IMF is very important for Pakistan as we have to pay around 2.5 billion dollars in the remaining months of the current fiscal year and we also need financing of 30 billion dollars for the next fiscal year.
He said that Shahbaz Sharif will decide on the next State Bank Governor as the incumbent’s tenure will end next month.
He also claimed that the PTI government has not approved the subsidy amount worth Rs373 billion from the ECC.
Regarding the petroleum prices, he said that Shahbaz Sharif will make a decision after the summary from OGRA.
He also said that FBR will also meet the Rs575 billion revenue target of last quarter.
how the PVT companies can increase employees salaries as companies are facing huge taxation and low profit