ISLAMABAD: The Finance Ministry has defended the imposition of new taxes of Rs 40 billion as well as new economic situation in the country against the severe criticism by the opposition members in the National Assembly.
A few days ago, the State Bank of Pakistan released annual report on the state of the economy for the year 2014- 15, stating that several key macro indicators recorded have improved.
According to the report, Pakistan’s economy did reasonably well during the current financial in contrast to a number of other emerging economies. The report says that other economies are facing slower economic growth.
Three opposition members namely Muzammil Qureshi, Nikhat Shakeel Khan and Saman Sultana Jafri on the basis of recent report of the State Bank of Pakistan about national economy pinpointed several weaknesses in the economy of Pakistan.
They observed that government had imposed new taxes of Rs 40 billion to further make the lives of common man more miserable. They also said that government had increased the volume of foreign exchange reserves with the help of foreign loans.
They strongly criticized the economic policies of the government which had resulted further increasing the per capita foreign loan as well as widening trade deficit. Every Pakistani is burdened with foreign loan of Rs 91, 000 because the total tune of foreign debt is $ 174 trillion.
However, on behalf of Finance Minster, Parliamentary Secretary on Finance Rana Afzal Khan observed that opposition members had only highlighted the weaknesses pointed out in the SBP report.
However, he said that the report has also indicated improvement in several key economic areas including the flow of foreign exchange remittances, coordination with international monetary institutions, check on price hike and banking sector as well as services sector.
“With an objective to bridge the widening trade deficit, Finance Ministry is urging the concerned ministry as well as departments to accelerate pace of measures in this regard. Moreover, it is wrong impression that foreign exchange reserves have been increased with the help of borrowed money” he maintained.
He added that increased foreign exchange reserves had helped in controlling the price hike as well as lowering inflation rate.
