ISLAMABAD: Finance Minister Miftah Ismail has expressed hope that inflation will become lower in September and there will be a significant reduction in electricity bills from October.
Speaking at the seminar in Islamabad, the finance minister said that exports of 30 billion dollars and imports of 80 billion dollars are not sustainable and this situation may last for 1 or 2 years but not for a long time. Pakistan’s growth is not stable and our growth is based on imports, he said.
The finance minister said that who talks about independence and true independence with external loans, the loans taken from Dubai in 1997 have not yet been repaid while the previous government provided cheap loans of Rs 500 billion to the richest class.
The finance minister also said that Pakistan has to control the budget and current account deficit, the decision to ban luxury goods had to be reversed due to international organizations including the IMF, but the ban on the import of vehicles will be maintained.
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He said that food inflation increased due to floods, but it is expected that inflation will come down in September and there will be a clear reduction in electricity bills from October.
Miftah Ismail also said that due to the floods, the crops of dates, onions, cotton, and sugarcane were destroyed in Sindh. The IMF would not mind helping the victims of the floods, but there is a fear that the cement sector concessions will be cut during the reconstruction. Do not demand it because giving cement subsidies will benefit cement factories more and the poor will benefit less.
The finance minister said that for the first time super tax has been imposed on large enterprises and sectors, and the sacrifice of these tough decisions is not as big as the loss of defaulting.
On the economic situation, he further said that if the import bill was 21 billion dollars, the loan could have been obtained, including Shahbaz Sharif, we all knew that the price of oil should be increased first.
The finance minister also said that when he came to power, 36 billion dollars was needed by June next year and we were aware that it would be difficult.
