KARACHI:To salvage the sagging economy of Pakistan, it is a must to form prudent policies and keep the national interests supreme to every other thing.
Successive governments in Pakistan have gone from economic mismanagement to economic madness, resulting in present sorry state of economic outlook today. The sitting government should adopt a different approach and rely on available resources instead of getting unmanageable foreign loans, said noted economic and chairperson of Pasban Democratic Party (PDP) Economic Affairs Division Dr Shahida Wizarat here Friday.
She said this mini-budget of the PTI has some good and some bad aspects. Talking about the positive impacts, she said there are a few incentives for industry. She said the relief for household units is a welcome decision. She said in Pakistan the majority of industry is comprised of household cottage and small scale industry units. She said the reduction in rate of corporate tax is another good step, which would help in cutting excessive tax burden from industry and trade.
She said the measures for distribution of income are also praiseworthy. She said in past people got loans from government but did not return them back. Some students got loans for foreign study but opted to stay abroad. She said the government should ensure some regulatory steps to ensure that this type of loans is duly returned back.
She said announcing loans for small housing units is also a positive development. She said tax holiday for green projects would help in improving our environment.Dr Shahida Wizarat said cut in interest rates on agricultural loans would boost economy. However, it is still not clear that this relief is for small growers or big feudal lords and corporate farms. She said the government should offer this incentive only for the small growers. She said cut in import duty on agricultural equipment and machinery is also welcome step of this government.
She said the government should have offered some incentives in this minibudget to promote organic farming. She said when Imran Khan had visited the Institute of Business Management I had asked from him why his party had supported lawmaking for amendment in Seed Act, and he replied that at that time they were not aware of this issue. She requested the PTI lawmakers to bring a resolution in assembly to withdraw that amendment and introduce measures in favor of organic farming in Pakistan.Dr Wizarat said it is a positivity of this government that it is trying not to go to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for new loans, but at the same time this government is getting loans from different countries of the world. He said the loan burden on Pakistan is increasing in either way.
She said it is not understandable why the government is relying so heavily on loans. She said she had repeatedly suggested the government to increase internal revenue instead of depending on local and foreign loans. She said we have immense resources. She regretted that Pakistan is giving its resources to both friend and foe countries free of cost. She said we have given our land and air routes to the NATO free of cost. She said we have given huge reserves of China clay on zero royalty to a friendly country for 100 years. She said we have given incentives in Riko Diq project and also in case of our gold and copper reserves.
She said we have leased land for Nestle in Karachi free of cost and also gave them free water to bottle and sells us on market price. She said why we give away our resources free to friend and foe countries and especially Western companies and then we beg from whole world for loans. She said this is not financial mismanagement but a financial madness. She said we should charge on market rate for our resources so that we have not to beg for loans. She said we have already implemented all the pre-conditionality’s of IMF for loans in Pakistan.
For example we have hugely depreciated the Pakistani rupee, which increased our loan burden and we increased salaries and pensions of our financial managers who get their perks in dollars. She said we have already increased lending rate increasing our cost of doing business. These steps have increasing inflation and price hike in Pakistan making the poor poorer and the rich richer. She said what the difference is between our not going to the IMF and implementing all conditionality’s of IMF in our country.