NA body concerned over rising loans
ISLAMABAD – National Assembly Standing Committee on Economic Affairs on Tuesday expressed concerns over the increasing loans of the country and sought the details of external loans and dollar exchange rate since year 1971.
The meeting of the National Assembly Standing Committee on Economic Affairs Division was held in Parliament House, Islamabad, under the chairmanship of Mir Khan Muhammad Jamali, MNA. He welcomed the participants of the meeting.
Additional Secretary Ministry of Economic Affairs Division briefed the Committee about the mandate functions, organogram human resource, external debt liabilities, external inflows / ongoing portfolio, joint commissions and performance of the Division. He informed that Rule 56(2) schedule II , 9 Rule 3(3) of the Rules of Business 1973 empowered the division to work regarding mobilizing of external economic assistance i.e loans, grants and technical assistant capacity building, external public debt management debt servicing. He also presented the breakup of budget for financial year 2021-22 allocated to the EAD for its functioning.
While talking about Pakistan’s external debt and labilities, the Committee members have expressed their concerns with regard to the increase of external debt and unanimously recommended that an exclusive meeting may be called to discuss the said matter. The Committee decided that ministry of Finance and State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) may also be invited in the next meeting of the Committee. The Committee directed that EAD will furnish the details of disbursement of funds for ongoing portfolio to this Secretariat.
The Additional Secretary further informed the Committee about the Joint Commissions established for bilateral Joint Economic Global phenomenon. He said that 67 JMCs and other bilateral commissions were established since 1970s. The Committee also directed the EAD to provide the details of external loans for the years 1972, 1985, 1999, 2008, 2017 and 2021 with the comparison of dollar exchange rate at that time during first month of each year.
The country’s overall debt is increasing at fast pace. Federal Minister for Finance and Revenue Shaukat Tarin had recently admitted that public debt is enhancing. Sharing the figures, finance minister had admitted that Pakistan’s total public debt has swelled to Rs39.9 trillion in fiscal year 2020-21, which was Rs25 trillion in 2018 when the government came in power. The debt had increased by Rs7.7 trillion in the first year of the PTI government, Rs3.7 trillion in the second year and Rs3.5 trillion in the third year of the incumbent government. However, he also said that net debt stood at 74 percent of the GDP in fiscal year 18, which increased to 86.8 percent in FY19, fell to 85.7pc in FY20 and then dropped to 81.8pc in FY21.
The meeting was attended by Aftab Jehangir, Ms Aliya Hamza Malik, Mst. Shaheen Naz Saifullah, Ali Zahid, Syed Javed Hasnain, Qaiser Ahmed Sheikh, Ali Pervaiz, Ms Aisha Ghous Pasha, Pir Ameer Ali Shah Jillani and Ms Shahida Akhtar Ali MNAs besides the senior officers from M/o Economic Affairs Division.
Article source: https://nation.com.pk/29-Sep-2021/na-body-concerned-over-rising-loans