ISLAMABAD, Pakistan; Finance Minister Muhammad Ishaq Dar Saturday said public debt had been piled up during previous governments.
Responding to queries of members of the National Assembly about charged expenditures, the minister said the present Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government had brought down fiscal deficit from 8.8 per cent to 4.3 per cent of the gross domestic product (GDP) during the last three years.
He said the process getting loans started in 1947. The debts stood at Rs 3,000 billion till June 30, 1999, reached Rs 5,800 billion in the Musharraf regime and further increased to Rs 14,318 billion in the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) last tenure.
He said the PML-N government would bring the debt to GDP ratio to 60 per cent by 2018, which would be further reduced to 50 per cent in next 15 years.
He said the size of Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) and social safety net had been doubled while a huge amount was being spent on Operation Zarb-e-Azb.
About expenditures of the President, the minister said the President represented the country at international forums and the government had to allocate funds for fulfilling his responsibilities.
He claimed that the amount spent on the Presidency now was far lower than that by the previous governments.
He said soon after assuming the power, the government had stopped secret funds to 32 institutions out of 34. Only the ISI (Inter Services Intelligence) and IB (Intelligence Bureau) were provided secret funds, but there was a mechanism to audit these funds, he added.
He said the Foreign Office was well aware and conscious whatever was happening around. The Torkham firing was not a good omen. The Prime Minister had called Advisor Tariq Fatimi to London to discuss the issues, he added.
He said this year three out of four provinces had deficit budget and they should concentrate on their capacity as after their devolution under the 18th Amendment they did not properly spend the amount they got from the federal divisible pool. But he added the government should focus on the federal deficit.
He said for the first time in the country’s history, the government had approved 62 per cent of the recommendations forwarded by the Senate for incorporation in the Finance Bill 2016-17.
To the questions related to interest or mark-up on debt, the Finance Minister said the debt servicing had direct relevance with loans. “When you take debt you have to pay mark-up.”
He said Pakistan Microfinance Investment Company (PMIC) would be operational from the beginning of next fiscal year to cater to demands of 25 million people who need microfinance.
The Pakistan Poverty Alleviation Fund and Germany’s Kreditanstalt fur Wiederaufbau (KfW) have already signed an agreement in this regard, he added.
In July the company would be operationalize and it would have big base and professional capacity, he said.
