Sugar exported to Afghanistan, not smuggled: Aurangzeb

ISLAMABAD: The Minister for Finance and Revenues, Mohammad Aurangzeb, Tuesday said that due to effective monitoring system, for the first time sugar has not been smuggled but was exported to Afghanistan.

He made these remarks while addressing a news conference along with Minister for Information and Broadcasting Attaullah Tarar here on Tuesday.

The minister for finance said there was sufficient sugar available in the county in order to meet domestic demands. He said that during this sugar season, the country would have 5.7 million tons of sugar, in addition to the stock available from the previous season. He expressed confidence that this would be sufficient to meet the country’s needs through better management.

“The record-breaking remittance inflow for February 2025 reached an impressive $3.1 billion.

We estimate an all-time high remittance inflow of $36 billion by the end of the fiscal year,” he said. “On behalf of the prime minister, the government, and cabinet, we extend our heartfelt thanks to all our Pakistani brethren and sisters working abroad and sending remittances back home,” he said.

The finance minister also shared the results of several independent surveys conducted in the past quarter, including those by Gallup, ICC, Overseas Shapers, Ipsos, PricewaterhouseCoopers and a recent one by the State Bank of Pakistan, all of which showed a noticeable uptick in businesses and consumer confidence. “This confidence is reflected in increased business activity, and it is promising to see these positive trends taking root across various sectors,” he noted. Despite daily fluctuations in the stock market index, Aurangzeb expressed optimism about the market’s overall direction. Notably, he pointed out that 52,000 new investors entered the market in recent months, signaling a growing interest in Pakistan’s financial sector. Furthermore, Aurangzeb highlighted a major milestone in the capital markets, with seven initial public offerings (IPOs) taking place on the stock exchange in the past year. The finance minister also highlighted the positive impact of these reforms on government revenue, noting that the sales tax on sugar in the first two months of 2025 had risen sharply compared to the same period in 2024, reaching Rs24 billion, up from Rs15 billion the previous year.