Letters of credit should not be opened for imports: Miftah Ismail

Picture source - APP (May 2022)

Federal Minister of Finance Miftah Ismail admitted that the dollar is still under a lot of pressure and said that Letters of credit should not be opened for imports.

While speaking to the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Miftah claimed that if the government had not chosen the IMF agreement, the nation may have gone bankrupt.

He also claimed that things are now improving.

Miftah said that the brief respite following the successful IMF agreement had been tarnished by terrible floods that had affected more than 30% of the population.

He stated that institutional loans will, ideally, be used to cover the country’s foreign exchange needs for the current fiscal year but if we are able to boost our exports, the foreign exchange issue will be gone.

He claimed that, as compared to imports, our exports were currently pitifully low, which was concerning.

According to Miftah, the tax to GDP ratio is at 9%, down from 11.5% in 2018, when the PMLN was in power.

He regretted that there was no way out notwithstanding his displeasure as a businessman with the rising taxes.

He also claimed that although the country received 12,000 MW more electricity during the previous PML-N administration, manufacturers did not use it to increase employment.

Miftah eventually assured businessmen that he would quickly resolve their letter of credit problems. The problems had been put off due to Pakistan’s terrible floods. He broke down sobbing and claimed the suffering of those affected was unimaginable.