ISLAMABAD, April 20: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has said the country is caught in a ‘debt trap’ and the incumbent government has to steer the nation out of it in order to save the economy.
“The country is caught in a debt trap and we have to steer it out from it and save the economy,” the prime minister said while chairing the maiden meeting of the federal cabinet on Wednesday.
The prime minister said that the cabinet is composed of extremely capable and experienced members, expressing the confidence that they will bring to use their best of abilities to serve the masses and live up to their expectations.
The premier said all decisions would be taken in unison and in consultation with stakeholders in order to address chronic challenges including those of the economy, energy, poverty and unemployment. He stressed it is only through hard work that the government can bring improvement to the situation.
He said that the broad-based coalition government would work tirelessly for the welfare of the people and take decisions that serve the interest of the country. The premier expressed a firm commitment to addressing the problems faced by the federating units, especially Balochistan.
He also pointed out that corruption increased during the tenure of the previous government and the ‘poisonous propaganda’ would be confronted with facts.
Later, briefing the media persons about the decisions taken during the federal cabinet meeting, Minister for Information and Broadcasting Marriyum Aurangzeb said the cabinet has approved reduction in prices of sugar and flour for provision of relief to people during Ramazan.
The information minister said the prime minister’s direction for price reduction of 10 kilogram flour pack from Rs550 to Rs400 during Ramazan was accorded approval. She said the subsidised flour will be available everywhere in Punjab.
She said reduction in sugar price from Rs80 per kilogram to Rs70 per kilogram at utility stores during Ramazan was also approved. Marriyum said directions have been given to ensure provision of sugar and flour across the country.
She said the Punjab government will supply flour to Gilgit-Baltistan. She said the supply of flour to Azad Kashmir will be a gift from the Punjab government. The minister said the foremost priority of the coalition government is revival of the economy.
To a question, Marriyum Aurangzeb said a cabinet committee under the chairmanship of Law Minister Azam Tarar has been constituted to review Exit Control List (ECL) law and will submit its report to the cabinet in three days.
Talking about poor performance of the previous PTI government, Finance Minister Miftah Ismail said fiscal deficit remained Rs1,600 rupees per annum on average during the last government of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, while the Imran Khan led-government took this figure to around Rs5,600 billion.
He said the total debt of the country from 1947 to 2018 was Rs25,000 billion, whereas the PTI government added Rs20,000 billion to it in just three-and-a-half years.
Regarding power outages in the country, the finance minister said power plants with a capacity of 7,500 megawatts of electricity are lying closed due to inaptness and incompetence of the previous government.
Earlier, Marriyum Aurangzeb in a tweet said that the federal cabinet was briefed on the economic disaster, unprecedented criminally irresponsible fiscal acts during the past 4 years by Imran Khan.
She said that during Imran’s rule, inflation, poverty, unemployment, debts and deficits rose. She said that Imran Khan’s term was marred by corruption and this was the reality of Naya Pakistan.
Quoting the figures, she said that in fiscal year 2017-18, GDP growth stood at 6.1 percent which fell to only 4 percent in 2021-22. She said that in 2017-18, the CPI inflation was at 3.9 percent which shot up to 10.9 percent in 2021-22 whereas the SPI inflation which was at 0.9 percent in 2017-18 increased to 17.3 percent. The food inflation which stood at 2.3 percent during 2017-18 shot up to 10.2 percent, she maintained. -TLTP
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