January 19, 2021: Minister for Industries and Production Hammad Azhar has said the government is taking concrete measures to bring down sugar and wheat prices in the country.

Speaking in the Senate on Monday, he said more sugar will be imported to ensure its smooth and cheap supply.

Hammad Azhar said in this regard we will seek permission from ECC to import 5000 tons more sugar.

The Minister said to ensure an adequate supply of flour, the Punjab government timely enhanced the release of wheat to flour mills, however, at the same time Sindh government limited the release which resulted in a price hike of flour in Sindh.

He said for the first time in history, sugarcane farmers are being paid the real price of their crop due to the support price announced by the PTI government.

The Minister said petroleum prices in Pakistan are lower than that of the neighboring countries.

Hammad Azhar said a major part of external debt during the PTI government was utilized to repay the interest on the loans obtained by the previous governments.  

Minister for Finance and Revenue Hafeez Sheikh has said the government is focusing on reducing foreign debt as it is a big burden on the country's economy.

Taking the floor, he said blaming the government for the current debt spike is unfair because it is also paying the loans obtained by the previous governments.

The Minister said during the initial days of the PTI government our first priority was to save the country from the impending default and resultantly the government took result-oriented decisions and had a landmark agreement with International Monetary Fund.

He said the current government inherited a very precarious economic situation in 2018 and therefore had to introduce strict financial discipline to curtail excessive government expenditure, increase revenue collection, introduce market-driven exchange rate, remove large tax exemptions and discourage imports.

He said that the government did not borrow even a single penny from the State Bank of Pakistan during the last one and a half year, while no supplementary grants were provided.

He outlined that since the spread of Covid-19, the government has taken several initiatives to facilitate agriculture and construction sectors to accelerate economic recovery.

He said due to primary surplus, we don’t need loans if we don’t have to repay previous loans.

The Minister said now the combined impact of various progressive economic indicators show that the country is moving forward.

Radio Pakistan

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