Addressing a press conference in Karachi, Fawad said there was no rift within the government over the mini-budget, saying the passage of the Finance Supplementary Bill 2021 will revive the International Monetary Fund (IMF) program.
He said the finance bill will likely pass by Jan 20 and the subsequent release of a $1b tranche by the IMF will stabilize the economy and the Pakistani rupee. Along with the IMF, the bill will also pave the way for the release of money from other global money lending institutions that would play a key role in national economic revival. “With the release of the IMF tranche, our immediate worries will be over,” the minister hoped. In a comment on the autonomy of the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), Fawad said giving the SBP autonomy was part of the PTI’s manifesto. “We are not subletting the central bank to the IMF,” he said, adding that the board of governors of the SBP will be appointed by the government.
According to Fawad, the PTI government didn’t borrow even a single rupee from the SBP over the past three years unlike the PML-N government that had “asked [the] SBP to print trillions of rupees”. “We believe in independent institutions and autonomy granted to the SBP will benefit Pakistan,” the minister added.
Fawad said the country is moving towards economic stability and 2022 would be the year of country’s progress. He stated this while talking to media persons after condoling with leader Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) Alamgir Khan over death of his father, Dilawan Khan, at his residence. He said the finance bill will be passed in the National Assembly within next few days. Fawad said rates of commodities had gone up in Pakistan due to increasing prices in the international market.
He said that in the past the agriculture sector was ignored by the previous regimes but the PTI government had taken initiatives to boast the sector, which resulted in five bumper crops and farmers received revenue over Rs1,100 billion. The minister said 100 companies of the country had earned Rs929 billion profit in the current fiscal year and media houses had declared 33 to 40 percent increase in their profit.
He said media houses unfortunately did not increase the salaries of their employees in spite of a huge profit. He urged the private sector to increase the salaries of their employees. While criticizing PML-N leader Miftah Ismail, he said that his own company also earned a huge profit but he was still denouncing the government. He congratulated him for earning a high profit.
