Imran Khan govt added Rs 20,000bn to country's debt, claims Miftah Ismail
Pakistan
Imran Khan govt added Rs 20,000bn to country’s debt, claims Miftah Ismail
ISLAMABAD (Dunya News) – Minister for Finance Miftah Ismail said on Wednesday that while presenting the evidence of incompetence and corruption of the previous government said that Imran Khan government has increased the debt by Rs 20,000 billion and the budget deficit has reached Rs 5600 billion.
Addressing a press conference flanked by Minister for Information and Broadcasting Marriyum Aurangzeb in Islamabad on Wednesday, the finance minister while seeking three months from the nation to fix everything said that after 3 months people will see improvement inshallah and power crisis will decrease and inflation will end.
Ismail further said that his name had been in ECL for the past three years and he will have to go to IMF. He hoped that the rupee will remain stable against the dollar now, adding that the price of sugar has been reduced to Rs 70 per kg from Rs 85. Punjab government has been instructed yesterday to reduce flour price, he said.
Talking about poor performance of the PTI government, the minister said fiscal deficit remained 1,600 billion rupees per annum on average during the last government of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, while the Imran Khan led-government took this figure to around 5,600 billion rupees. He said total debt of the country from 1947 to 2018 was 25,000 billion rupees, whereas PTI Government added 20,000 billion rupees to this debt in just three and half years.
Regarding power outages in the country, the Finance Minister said power plants with a capacity of 7,500 megawatts of electricity are lying closed due to inaptness and incompetence of the previous government.
Commenting on shortage of fertilizers, he said unfortunately agri-inputs and wheat were smuggled to other countries, causing shortage of the commodity in the country. He said the government has decided to constitute a commission to investigate smuggling of fertilizers.
About the IMF programme, Miftah Ismail said he expressed the belief that he will successfully get this programme revived today. He said it is top priority of the government to put least burden on the common man, while reviving the IMF programme.
Ismail said: "The government is determined to bring budget discipline and present a pro-people budget to provide maximum relief to the masses, adding that depreciation in rupee value will not be allowed and inflation will be brought under control."
