Govt’s fiscal policies reduced current account deficit: Finance Adviser

ISLAMABAD: Adviser to the Prime Minister on Finance Abdul Hafeez Shaikh on Tuesday highlighted the performance of the finance ministry as the federal government completes its second parliamentary year.

Several members of the federal cabinet addressed a press conference highlighting the government’s achievement. The finance adviser said Pakistan was facing enormous challenges when the government came to power, including a huge current account deficit has been reduced drastically due to effective fiscal policies.

The finance adviser said that the government of Pakistan, civil and military leadership both, had reduced their budgets to practice austerity in times of crisis. He said the government had not borrowed from the State Bank of Pakistan throughout the current year and no supplementary grants were issued.

Hafeez Sheikh said that it is their historic performance that the current account deficit was brought down from $20 billion dollars to $3 billion, while the government returned loans of Rs5,000 billion.

He said the country is being taken forward through a combined effort and said the people are the priority of the prime minister. He said economic gains will be further consolidated in the days ahead.

Referring to the Ehsaas Emergency Cash Programme, the finance adviser said the prime minister unveiled aRs1240 package to give cash to ordinary people impacted the coronavirus pandemic. He said that for the first time in Pakistan’s history, Rs250bn were provided to over 100 million people across the country in a transparent manner.

He said that the government had not imposed any new taxes in federal budget 2020-21 and the economic policies have started bearing fruit. He revealed that Pakistan’s exports grew by 6 percent in July as a result of the government’s economic policies, while the country received record remittances of $2.8 billion.

He said the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) was performing exceptionally well and was praised by international publications as the best performing in the world.  He said domestic sales of cement increased by thirty-three percent, while there has been an increase in the sale of fertilizers and vehicles. 

He said the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) collected Rs300 billion which was many times more than their estimates. He said Pakistan’s economic performance is now being hailed by international organizations including IMF, Moody’s and Fitch.

Pakistan received ‘wide recognition’ on FATF targets

Federal Minister of Industries and Production Hammad Azhar said that the government brought about a construction package whose results were already being felt in the economy. He said that the government had curbed smuggling of mobile phones through technological means.

Referring to the Pakistan Steel Mills, among other institutions, Azhar said that a lot of sectors had been “kept in the morgue” by previous governments and were revived by the government. He said the government took the decision to involve a joint stakeholder from the private sector to manage the institution.

Regarding the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the minister said Pakistan was put on the grey list during the previous government’s tenure. He said the government was given a 27-point strict action item, which wasn’t previously given to any other country in such a short span of time.

Azhar said that the government had completed 14 of the 27 action items and out of the remaining 13, 11 had been ‘partially completed’. The minister during the past one year, the country had received wide recognition from the global community for tackling money laundering and terror financing.