More funds needed to cope with flood havoc: Aisha Pasha

ISLAMABAD: Minister of State for Finance Aisha Ghaus Pasha said that Pakistan requires ‘additional funding’ from international creditors to mitigate massive damages caused by severe flash floods in the country.

The government, she said, would come up with ascertaining the exact damages by floods. The government plans to come up with a transparent and criteria-based design of rehabilitation and construction programmes having effective monitoring and checks and balances.

“We will have to do proper homework in a comprehensive manner before sharing exact details of damages caused by flash floods with the international donors’ till next week, however, Pakistan will have to compete for obtaining additional funding in the wake of shrinking aid at global levels.

The multilateral and bilateral donors are engaged in other parts of the world at the time of threat of recession,” Minister of State for Finance Aisha Ghaus Pasha said in an exclusive interview with The News here at her office in the Ministry of Finance Monday.

The minister of state also dwelt upon various issues, including flash floods and their damages, immediate requirements for reconciling figures of damages with international donors, placement of a foolproof transparent and criteria-based mechanism for extending help to flood-affected people, devising of interest-free loans programme for farmers, remaining into the fold of IMF programme and finalisation of Resource Mobilization Programme.

The minister said that the exact damages faced by economy on account of GDP growth, Current Account Deficit, and rise in inflation would be ascertained after establishing a joint ministerial committee, including the Ministry of Finance, Economic Affairs Division, Ministry of Planning, State Bank of Pakistan and National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA).

She said that the multilateral donors were re-purposing their resources towards the flood-hit areas but Pakistan wanted additional funding after making an exact assessment of damages and reconciling its figures by establishing a joint coordination committee with donors.

“We will have to compete for securing additional funding from international donors keeping in view elements of donors’ fatigue in our minds and its pre-requisites will be the placement of a transparent mechanism where effective monitoring must scrutinise each and every penny going to be utilised for rehabilitation and construction of the flood-hit areas,” she maintained.

Without a proper design and automated transparent mechanism, she said that the rehabilitation and reconstruction would remain ineffective. She said that the government would have to find out a strategy for providing relief and compensation packages that should not fuel inflationary pressures further in the wake of rising CPI-based inflation. She said that the government was considering provision of interest-free loans to small farmers in the flood-hit areas so the farmers could reap benefits after dewatering of surfaces of their lands.

Aisha Ghous Pasha was of the view that the GDP growth was going to face negative impact on account of agriculture crops such as cotton crop faced losses, livestock faced negative impact but exact estimates would be shared by next week. To another query, she said that the government would keep itself into the IMF fold because it did not want resurfacing threat of imbalances on the macroeconomic front.

“It is unprecedented that we all are not united in the wake of floods for the sake vested political interests,” she said. She emphasized the need for devising a five to 10-year roadmap for reviving economy and reminded that there would be a five-year plan which would have gone through a painful phase. To avoid boom and bust cycles, she said that budget and current account deficits clearly demonstrated this fact that Pakistanis lived beyond their means so this course would have to be reversed. The country would have to diversify its exportable products as well as markets, adding that food insecurity would have to be managed through increased productivity and efficiency.