ISLAMABAD: The net borrowings by the government witnessed increase of 7 percent during the outgoing fiscal year 2016-17, the Senate Committee on Finance Revenue, Economic Affairs, Statistics and Privatization was informed Wednesday.
The committee meeting, chaired by Saleem Mandviwalla, was attended among others by Senators Ilyas Ahmad Bilour, Muhamamd Mohsin Khan Leghari, Mohsin Aziz and Secretary Finance, besides representatives from Finance Ministry, Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) and State Bank of Pakistan.
The representatives of Finance Ministry informed the committee that net increase in debts during fiscal year 2014-15 was 9 percent, it went up to 11 percent in 2015-16 and again reduced to 7 percent during FY2016-17, till May.
The committee was informed there was increase of $3.811 billion in net foreign debts during the fiscal year 2016-17 while the net domestic debts increased by $1.182 billion during the period under review.
Providing details, they said that in total the government obtained $7.439 billion loans from July 1, 2016 to May 31, 2017 from external sources including inflows of $2 billion from Chinese banks. The government during the period retired $3.628 billion while mark up amounting to $1.166 billion was also paid during this period, hence the net public external borrowings stood at $3.811 billion.
However, the committee was not satisfied with the debt figures presented by the finance ministry and asked the concerned officials to come up with details during next meeting, which is likely to take place during mid August. The finance ministry was also asked to present its opinion on how the foreign and domestic debts could be reduced during the next five years.
Meanwhile, discussing the recommendations presented by the committee for Finance Bill 2017, the representatives of FBR informed the committee that out of 53 recommendations presented by the committee relating to FBR, 17 were accepted, 5 partially accepted while 30 were rejected.
The committee deferred discussion on the bill to provide for rehabilitation and re-organization of distressed corporate entities (The Corporate Rehabilitation Bill 2017).
The Finance Ministry was asked to come up with details of recommendations that were proposed in the bill. The committee referred the public petition pertaining to introduction of Health Insurance Scheme by the government for government employees in lieu of current system of medical reimbursement/medical allowance to Senate Health Committee.
Representing Health Ministry, Dr Hashim informed the committee that the issue could be resolved through collaboration between his ministry and the Ministry of Finance.
He informed the committee that according to the policy each family was being provided Rs50,000 for indoor treatment and Rs250,000 for patients having serious ailments such as kidney failures, hepatitis and other such issues. He said that there was still need to develop mechanism for outdoor patients.
The committee deferred discussion on the recommendations made by the committee to present draft Bill in respect of Federal Consolidated Fund (FCF) and Public Account for next meeting.
