Miftah Ismail says flood devastation to cost $10bn

September 01, 2022: Federal Minister for Finance and Revenue Miftah Ismail on Thursday said, the current devastation of flood in Pakistan is estimated to cost $10 billion.

During flood, railway lines, roads, bridges, grid stations, power lines and houses etc. were badly damaged, that have to be rehabilitated, the minister said while talking to BBC World Service.

The minister said that the United Nation has made a commitment of $160 million and USAID has announced the provision of $30mn. In addition to this, friendly countries including the United Kingdom, European countries, Australia and Arab countries have provided financial support and delivered aid materials.

"Rehabilitation is a long process which Pakistan will try to complete with the help of its own resources and friendly countries," he added.

The Minister said that the devastating magnitude of the flood was very high and it is a big challenge for us. 

In response to a question, he said that the federal and provincial governments are helping the flood victims and adding that the central government is disbursing money, for which a woman in every house is being given an amount of up to Rs2,500. He said that this amount will be disbursed to 4.2mn women across the country.

Miftah said that the federal and provincial governments and National Disaster Management Authority are currently busy helping the flood victims and the government is delivering food packets, mosquito nets, tents and medicines to the flood affected areas.

He clarified that there is no shortage of food, but there is a shortage of onions and tomatoes. He said, “We are importing tomatoes and onions by reducing the import duty.”

Apart from this, several million tons of wheat is being imported at subsidized rates and the duties on it are being reduced.

He said that this is a very challenging situation, crops have been damaged due to flood in Sindh province. Especially, cotton crops have been damaged up to 30% in Sindh province and the sugarcane crop has been damaged up to 20%.

He added that wheat will be sown in the next two months as water draining out is a big challenge but it will be resolved so that the farmers can sow their crops.

The government is considering giving incentives to farmers and banks will relax the loans of farmers so that they can cover their losses, he informed. 

APP