Volume of external and circular debt reduced due to pragmatic government policies: Hammad Azhar

November 5, 2019 (MLN): Federal Minister for Economic Affairs Hammad Azhar on Tuesday said that the Government of Pakistan with the help of Prime Minister of Turkey has amicably resolved the issue of Karkey Power Plant which helped government got a waiver of Rs 200 billion.

The economic affairs minister while addressing a press conference said that after this resolution, the country’s current account deficit has shrunk by 64%.

 Talking about economic stability he said that during the first quarter of FY20, Portfolio investment increased by US$350 million which improved the country’s foreign exchange reserves.

He said that the PTI government has reduced the volume of external debt, as last year the government paid almost US$10bn against external debts.

 He also said that the numbers of tax filers increased by 55%.

With regards to the equity market, he said that in the last three months, the Stock market gained around 5,500 points.

He further said that due to prudent policies of the government, the export volume has shown improvement, also, the volume of Circular Debt has been reduced to Rs 12 billion from Rs 38 billion monthly.

“In the first 13 months of PPP inflation rate was above 22%, while in the PML N period, the inflation rate was 8.4%. In PTI's government inflation rate averaged 8%,” he added.

To a question, he explained that inflation has been on the rise because of middle-men influence, however, the Government in collaboration with provincial governments is effectively working on the price control mechanism.

He said the collection of Federal Board of Revenue increased and tax base enhanced by 55 percent and growing circular debt brought down from 38 billion to 12 billion rupees per month.

Responding to a question, the Minister said the government is introducing reforms and automation in Federal Board of Revenue but none of the employees is being deprived of a job.

With regards to Large Scale Manufacturing, he said that in coming months LSM will show better performance.

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