Budget, COVID-19 provide yet another chance to wake up: Senator Nisar Memon

By Abdul Qadir Qureshi
(Pakistan News & Features Services)

“Acute political confrontation of the decade, non-adherence to constitutional procedures, governance issues, absence of consensus on a national economic plan, mistrust in leadership, dependence on foreign financial and management support marred the 2020-2021 budget, like last budget, but to cap it all came COVID-19.”

This was observed by Senator Nisar Memon, a former federal minister, when approached by PNFS for his thoughts about the budget. 

“The GDP growth target for FY21 is set at +2.1% as against 0.4% negative growth in FY20 while fiscal deficit target has been set at PKR 3,195 billion or 7.0% of GDP and inflation target has been set at 6.5%. The total outlay of budget 2020-21 is PKR 7,294.9 billion, this size is 11% lower than the size of budget estimates 2019-20,” he pointed out. 

“The government has not imposed any new taxes in the budget but has budgeted increase in FBR revenues. The FBR tax target has been set PKR 4,963 billion (+27%, 10.9% of the GDP) whereas actual collection for FY20 stood at PKR 3,908 billion, down by 30% from FY20 budgeted amount of PKR 5,555 billion, while current expenditure is budgeted at PKR 6,345 billion,” he added. 

“Whatever the numbers committed, the expectation of common man for control of inflation, working class for jobs, small businesses for enabling environment, agriculture sector for all out support in the face of devastation caused by swarms of locust and rains, the innovative ways of relief in the face of dwindling revenues, accommodating the reasonable requirements of trade and industry, and above all equitable and just support to all areas of federation are the key questions stakeholders have from the Q-Block of the capital,” Senator Nisar Memon stated.

“The Ashrafia, newly added lexicon for intelligentsia and privileged ruling minority, advocates that there was hardly any room for the finance team to maneuver. However, many term it IMF budget, government setting highly ambitious FBR targets for the upcoming year thus not ruling out mini-budget in the later part of the year,” he reckoned.

“The electronic, print and social media has been commenting on the subject more than the assemblies and will be doing so in the coming days. The real challenge for government will be to mitigate the unprecedented hardship of all segments of society, particularly of the large majority with feeble voice for economic survival. The leadership is on the dock with no escape but to turn around this difficult situation,” the former federal minister explained. 

“But the huge challenge the nation, the government, intelligentsia, economists, security specialists, and researchers face is how they achieve national economic consensus for an economic plan for the ongoing decade. We have human power, the youth, educated women, natural resources, successful experiences, some failed practices, reliable neighbour China, brothers in faith like Iran and Afghanistan, renewed relationship of trust with super power USA, and a history of strong institutions,” he said. 

“This existentialist challenge can be achieved by genuine, honest, transparent, courageous leadership controlling the ego, lust for power, inflexible mindsets, unbridled corruptions, incompetence and state institutions pulling the country in different directions,” he continued. 

“Surely, we can overcome these in the larger interest of our poverty stricken people living below the acceptable human levels long deprived of constitutional fundamental rights. Let the leadership carve out its position in history amongst the ones who rebooted systems by paradigm shift to secure future of its people and saved the people with just one thought - service to people in whose name they govern,” Senator Nisar Memon suggested. 

"If all hopes in leadership are dashed, the citizens may stop tolerating the intolerable and rise, triggered by events like that of Burhan Wani in Kashmir, George Floyd in Minneapolis, Arab spring in Middle East, and mishandling of judiciary in last decade in Pakistan. The budget and COVID-19 has provided the nation with yet another chance to wake up in the interest of sovereignty of the country,” he concluded.

IMF agrees relief to Pakistan

By Masood Sattar Khan 
(Pakistan News & Features Services)

Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi has observed that Prime Minister Imran Khan’s appeal to the world yielded results to reschedule the loans as world particularly the developing countries were under enormous pressure. 

Talking to electronic media, the Foreign Minister revealed that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has agreed to reschedule the loan Pakistan obtained for one year that would be effective with immediate effect. 

He also disclosed having held talks with the Chinese Foreign Minister, Wang Yi, before the G-20 meeting as many counties were of the view that China and Russia could play significant role in loan rescheduling. 

Shah Mahmood said that his Chinese counterpart had given him the assurance of his country fully supporting the initiative of Pakistan’s Prime Minister. 

Claiming that the diplomacy was bringing in the results, he informed that China has also agreed to reschedule its loan, following adverse effects on economy due to Coronavirus.

SBP Governor foresees better economic future

By Abdul Qadir Qureshi
(Pakistan News & Features Services)

The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) Governor, Dr Raza Baqir, assured the members of the English Speaking Union of Pakistan (ESUP) as well as others attending the meeting at Beach Luxury Hotel, Karachi, on March 2 that the economic conditions of the country were far better off in many areas as compared to the past.

While the audience, having gathered much before the arrival of the chief guest, stood divided in believing the contents of the speech, the SBP Governor didn’t mind replying to tough questions in the interactive session. 

Aziz Memon, the livewire President of the ESUP, showered Dr Raza Baqir with praise while introducing him formally before inviting the distinguished speaker to deliver the keynote address. At the end of the session, the SBP Governor was presented a shield by the ESUP officials.

Dr Raza Baqir, having worked at key positions in the past, including a stint with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), described the functions of the SBP, clarifying that the collection of taxes was not its responsibility. He had taken over as the Governor of the SBP last year. 

“We regulate banks in order to minimize the incidents of bad debts and write-offs. We oversee the safety of the payments, which means looking after the transactions between banks and parties. Besides overseeing the foreign exchange market, we also oversee Pakistan’s foreign reserves and set the policy rate of the SBP, which in turn helps to set market rates,” he informed. 

The SBP Governor reminded the audience that the country’s exchange rate and reserves were falling alarmingly last year but the situation was brought under control by implementing some tough measures. 

“The reserves were down to $7 billion at which point we decided to change the exchange rate system and let the market decide the exchange rate. It’s a concept that many emerging markets have been using for years but it was new for Pakistan. There were a lot of apprehensions and criticism when we adopted market-based exchange rate. But those critics and experts who predicted dollar to go sky high have become silent,” Dr Raza Baqir shared.

Quoting facts and figures, he was of the opinion that the country’s economy could have been in shambles if, the difficult reforms had not been undertaken. 

He highlighted the importance of foreign exchange reserves, reckoning that it was the single most important determinant of a country’s economic sovereignty. 

The SBP Governor stated that the monetary policy committee of the central bank had to increase the interest rates because the rise in inflation was rising. 

“One of the factors of the increasing inflation was also the pressure on rupee, the depreciation of the rupee that had occurred over the preceding months had caused the prices to rise. The last rate increase was done in July when the inflation was around 8 to 9 percent. The inflation has now gone upto 12 percent but we haven’t increased the interest rates since July last,”he added. 

Dr Raza Baqir announced that the SBP, working on reducing the reliance on printed currency notes, will soon be launching a couple of innovative products to facilitate digital transactions on a massive scale.