Pakistan has a default risk of Rs 5.1 trillion. Declaring the previous government as the culprit, the minister for finance said “Imran Khan wreaked havoc everywhere” as he blamed the country’s economic decline on the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government’s terms. “Imran Khan gave pardon to his friends,” argued the minister.
Miftah, while incriminating the previous government’s apparant inability said “Khan sahib only knew how to impound land by creating real estate clearings and trusts”.
The finance minister said he was hopeful of the ‘support’ from the coalition government. He pledged that “we will reduce inflation and no load-shedding will be faced”.
During the PTI government’s rule, the default stood at nearly Rs2.4 trillion, while during the Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz’s (PML-N) reign it had been recorded at a decreased Rs1.66 trillion.
According to government statistics, the developmental budget decreased from Rs0.9 trillion to Rs0.55 trillion while the total debt increased by 79 percent. Meanwhile, the trade deficit plunged as low as $48 billion in the PTI government’s last year.
The finance minister reasoned that the previous government “violated the agreement it had itself negotiated with the International Monetary Fund (IMF)”. Pakistan has a default risk of Rs 5.1tr.
He also contended that the deal with the global lender was stalled by the previous government and was too poorly negotiated. “According to the deal, a tax of Rs4 was to be imposed successively every month. This [deal] was agreed in November and broken in February,” said the minister.
Reminiscing on the situation in Sri Lanka, the minister said that “they did exactly what the PTI had done and now nobody can even buy petrol there”. He also said that PM Shehbaz had been unhappy with the price hike in petroleum products, but now “God has shown us good days”.
Pointing toward the super tax introduced in June on big firms’, the finance minister said “I imposed 10% super tax on the prime minister’s sons’ factory”; meanwhile “Imran Khan imposed indirect taxes – a policy he had himself opposed”.
He also said that “we will give interest-free loans of Rs500,000 to the youth” as an action to certify the largest age group of the Pakistani population.
He also added that the government had “removed tax on all seeds, fertilizer, and tractors” in an effort to ease the strain on the agriculture sector. Pakistan has a default risk of Rs 5.1tr.
“It takes 500 billion to run the government,” said the finance minister, as he blamed Imran Khan for “destroying the power sector” and noted that “Rs1,350 billion were given as subsidy in the power sector alone”.
Amid gas load-shedding, “a circular debt of Rs1,300 billion was stockpiled”. He further said that “neither did Imran Khan reduce transmission losses, nor was there any bill collection”.
“All these factors contribute to the reason why the country went bankrupt,” added the minister.
Miftah Ismail also contended that while Nawaz Sharif’s government’s long-term contracts had been “scandalized”, so much so that “people were sent to jail for them”, “today if the country is running it is because of those agreements”. He also claimed that today there were no long-term agreements for LNG and diesel.
