Bad days gone as Pakistan moving towards economic stability: Hafeez Shaikh

ISLAMABAD: Sunday's advisor to finance and imports, Dr. Abdul Hafiz Shaikh, said the bad day has gone now, as Pakistan is moving towards economic stability with timely and prudent measures by the PTI government.

As Shabbar Zaidi, Chairman of Federal Board of Directors and Finance Minister Kamran Baloch, held a press conference at a press conference, he said that a substantial decrease of the current account deficit was 73 percent and exports increased by stable foreign exchange reserves and rupees. Dollar parity.

He said the stock market has been stable for the past few weeks.

At the same time, the total revenue collection increased from 550 billion rupees to 580 billion rupees in the two months of the previous year, a 25{7be40b84a6a43fc4fae13304fce9a2695859798abfc41afd127b9f8b21c5f9c5} increase.

He added that the decline in imports was due to a decline in imports, but domestic imports increased by 40 percent during that period.

He said that the financial deficit during the first two months of the current fiscal year was clearly controlled in the fact that during that period, only 24 billion rupees.

The adviser said the inflation rate was lower than expected and will be lower in the coming months.

The government added several measures, including borrowings from the National Bank of Pakistan (SBP), to control inflation.

"I didn't even borrow a single rupee from the SBP for two months of the current fiscal year (July-August)."

Hafeez Shaikh also said that the government has fulfilled its commitment to liquidate all of the 22 billion rupees-proven sales tax refund claims filed by 2015, and about 10,000 people benefited.

The business community praised this initiative.

"Income tax refunds to pending Rs 100,000 after 2015 have also been resolved."

He said the government introduced a new system without human intervention to guarantee immediate reimbursement to exporters.

He added that from August 23, under the system marked and operated as Faster, the previous month's refund claims will be cleared by the 16th of next month.

He also anticipated that the government would collect around 100 billion rupees of untaxed income, of which 200 billion rupees would come from a licensing renewal of a cellular company, and 300 billion rupees from the privatization of LNG terminals, which is expected to be finalized in December. The SBP's interest gold is 300 billion rupees.

He said that when it comes to power sector reforms, by the end of December next year, the circular debt, which has been reduced from Rs 38 billion to Rs 10 billion, will be zero.

He said the government saved around 120 billion rupees by overcoming power theft and other losses.

The adviser talked about the stabilization phase and said the Pakistani government had reached an agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) with the PTI government focused on the external sector.

He also added to the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank.

He said the private sector, the vulnerable parts of society and the neglected regions of the country received special attention in the budget.

The government also added austerity measures to reduce spending by 50 billion rupees in addition to freezing military spending and paying senior officials.

Regarding the privatization process, Hafeez Shaikh said that the government decided to transfer such public organizations to the private sector, which the government department cannot handle.

He added that 20 state-owned companies are on the privatization's list of priorities.

"Becoming a privatization minister in 2006, the government privatized 34 public enterprises at the time."

The adviser said the government is also thinking about privatizing profitable companies, including the National Bank of Pakistan and the State Life Insurance Corporation.

He was convinced that after the government had secured the stability of its external front over last year, the economy is moving in the right direction, surpassing the growth target of 2.4{7be40b84a6a43fc4fae13304fce9a2695859798abfc41afd127b9f8b21c5f9c5} set for the current fiscal year (2019-20).

He said the government has a special focus on the development of the agricultural sector.

It is expected that by the end of the current fiscal year more than 3{7be40b84a6a43fc4fae13304fce9a2695859798abfc41afd127b9f8b21c5f9c5} of growth will be recorded, which has been completely ignored by the past regime due to negative growth of 0.8{7be40b84a6a43fc4fae13304fce9a2695859798abfc41afd127b9f8b21c5f9c5} in 2013-2018. Hafeez Shaikh said the government is working hard for public welfare.

He urged people to stay calm during difficult times because the government had to make long-term difficult decisions to improve.

According to the question, the adviser said that the International Monetary Fund's visit to Pakistan is a matter of routine.

The two sides have already agreed that the IMF team will visit Islamabad quarterly to review economic performance.

In response to the question, Shabbar Zaidi, Chairman of the FBR, said he increased 2.5 million people from 1.9 million last year to 2.5 million this year.

He added that he received six billion rupees from the new tax filer.

He said the FBR will launch a mobile application with taxpayers to easily file income tax returns and pay taxes.