ISLAMABAD: Minister for Finance, Ishaq Dar said the total public external debt as of November 30, 2015 stood at $51.31 billion whereas by September 30, these were recorded at $48.13 billion thus showing an increase of $3.2 billion in two years of the current government.
“Under the International Monetary Fund (IMF) program, the current government has so far received $5.2 billion out of which it paid back $4.42 billion as debt received by the previous governments”, he said while addressing a press conference here.
He said the total debt of the country increased from Rs 14,400 billion by September 30, 2013 to Rs 18,224 billion by November 30, 2015.
He clarified that the government’s debt were not agreed on higher rates as the average cost of total debts remained only 3.3 percent.
Dar said the country was now moving towards right direction and the Pakistan Muslim League (N) government had succeeded in bringing number of reforms in the national economy which was suffering at the time when it took over the charge.
“The country’s revenue has witnessed a very good progress during first six months of current fiscal year (2015-16), the revenue collection increased by 18.6 percent to Rs 1385 billion as compared to same period of previous year”, the minister added.
He said the IMF had also expressed satisfaction over achieving the revenue collection target.
He informed that during first quarter of current fiscal year, the government could not achieve the revenue target of Rs 640 billion and there was a shortfall of Rs 40 billion while in the second quarter, it surpassed the target of Rs 750 billion as it achieved Rs 785 billion during the period.—-APP
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