PESHAWAR: The federal finance ministry in a written response to the National Assembly said the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government has contracted $37.85 billion foreign loans in three years.
The Ministry of Finance submitted a written reply to the National Assembly regarding the foreign loans taken by the government. The finance ministry further informed that the country has also received $1 billion in grants. The response said that during the same period, $29.81 billion was paid in terms of loans and interests repayment.
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The Ministry of Finance said that foreign loans of $49.76 billion were taken during the five years of the previous government and at present the total domestic and Pakistan foreign loans has reached Rs414 trillion. According to the statement, by September 2021, the volume of total domestic debt had reached Rs264 trillion and the total foreign debt has raised to Rs150 trillion.
Meanwhile, during the parliamentary party meeting, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) member parliament Ramesh Kumar raised objections to the mini-budget and expressed reservations over the bill for the State Bank of Pakistan’s autonomy.
Ramesh Kumar said that the SBP should have autonomy but the blindly accepting the conditions of the IMF are “worrisome”. Kumar said that Parliament and the people must be taken into confidence on this issue. Members of parliament also questioned the rising prices of fertilizers and criticized the government’s economic policies.
The Federal Cabinet on Thursday, chaired by Prime Minister Imran Khan, approved mini-budget, on the direction of International Monitory (IMF) to secure $1 billion loan tranche. Under the mini-budget, the government has planned to increase sales tax on about 150 items. According to reports, income tax on mobile phone calls is proposed to be increased from 10 to 15 percent, sales tax on vehicles larger than 850 cc has been increased by 17 percent. In addition, it is proposed to increase tax on the import of duty on electric vehicles from 5% to 17%.