Govt retires $9.5 bn foreign loans in one year, NA told

ISLAMABAD: The National Assembly (NA) was informed on Thursday that the government had retired record foreign loans worth of 9.5 billion dollars during the fiscal year which had never been done by any government in single year.

“We retired record 9.5 billion dollars as foreign loans from August, 2018 till June 30, 2019,” Minister for Revenue Hammad Azhar told the House during question hour. He said the incumbent government had to repay record amount of loans because the last regime procured short-term loans in its last two years and same loans were matured last year or ongoing fiscal year.

The minister said the government would have to retire another 10 billion dollars of loans in 2019-2020. He said government is focusing to enhance exports and foreign remittances for putting the country on the path of development and prosperity.

To another question, he said foreign exchange rate remained constant. He said government is focusing on agriculture sector and Rs280 billion has been allocated for the purpose. He said during one year of PPP government, the rupee devalued by 25% and faced devaluation of little over 24% in the last one year.

To a supplementary question, the minister said that inflation rate in the country is 10.3% and not 13% or 15%. He said cotton growing area was reduced 28 percent in last ten years which is a matter of grave concern.

The minister said increase in cotton growing area was discussed in ECC and a committee has also been formed in this regard, while the export enhancement package has been extended for another three years.

Federal Minister Omar Ayub in response to a question from ex-foreign minister Hina Rabbani Khar said cost of production had been on the rise in the last 10 years due to invisible impediments and prohibitions and accumulation of corruption which affected the foreign investment.

The minister said that the incumbent government was bent of breaking the coalition of corruption, invited protest from the opposition desks.

Protesting minister’s remark, the former prime minister observed he was not expecting such reply from Omar Ayub, saying there should specific answer to a specific question.

“If he is to give political statement then we are more experienced than him,” he said still the volume of exports was more than now even if the past governments were corrupt.

Omar Ayub did not stop here, saying he just talked about coalition of corruption. “The government is doing its best to reduce the corruption index,” he said.

Parliamentary Secretary for Commerce and Textile Aliya Hamza Malik told the House during Question Hour that this package will provide long term policy to support and encourage non-traditional exports of the country.

She said gas tariffs for LNG have been lowered for Punjab to bring it at par to other provinces to reduce cost of production. Aliya Malik said import and export regulations have also been revised to make existing regulations more business friendly.

Taking floor Minister for Power Omar Ayub Khan said on the direction of Prime Minister Imran Khan cost of doing business are being reduced to facilitate investors. He termed invisible regulatory in previous governments an impediment in reducing cost of doing business.

The House offered fateha for the departed souls who were martyred in bomb blast in Quetta three years ago, those who were martyred in cluster bombs attack in Azad Jammu and Kashmir and for three persons who died in River Chitral during the recent flood flash.