ISLAMABAD: Minister of State for Revenue Hammad Azhar on Tuesday informed the Senate that a sum of $ 37 billion loan would be retired in the next four and half years.
Responding to various supplementary questions during question hour, the minister said out of said loan, $ 9.2 billion would be retired during this year.
He said the incumbent government inherited the excessive loans and efforts were being made to put the country in right direction.
He said owing to steps taken by the government, current deficit account and trade deficit account had witnessed persistent decrease.
To another question, the minister said that Rs27,376 billion domestic and $3,395 million external loans have been paid since July 1, 2018 to February 28, 2019. Around $ 1.2 billion interest has also been paid on the loans during the said period, he added.
To a question, Hammad Azhar said the government obtained Rs 1,185 billion net domestic loans during September 2018 to January 2019 while $ 1,758 million, comprising $ 1,682 million as foreign loans and $77 million as foreign grants, were received during the said period.
He said domestic debt was primarily utilized for budgetary support that includes infrastructure and development needs as well as debt servicing of the country. Meanwhile, foreign borrowing was required to service existing debt, finance essential imports, stabilize external reserves to maintain external account sustainability in global context, he added.
He said foreign borrowing was also used to supplement the domestic resources required to accelerate the pace of economic development and also make positive contribution towards developing the country’s infrastructure base.
