While expressing concerns over external account, Senate Standing Committee on Finance has asked for providing financing details with projected inflows and outflows for the next six months of the current fiscal year. A meeting of the Senate standing committee of the Finance, presided over by Senator Saleem Mandviwalla on Tuesday, was informed by the Minister of State for Finance Rana Muhammad Afzal that Pakistan is required to repay $6 billion foreign loan in the current fiscal year. He said that $2.4 billion have been repaid while the remaining $3.6 billion will be repaid before June 2018.

The minister stated, "It is a factual situation that we are short of dollars for development projects." He stated that the government is taking measures to overcome the shortage of dollars. "I have already stated that the government has no plan to go to the IMF. We go to the IMF only when balance of payment position worsens," he added. The minister said that next Post-Program Monitoring (PPM) is due in April 2018. The government is taking external loans for development projects and there is no issue of fulfilling liabilities as economic indicators are showing positive signs with growth in exports and reduction in imports.

The committee also expressed concern over significant increase in total debt of the country and continuous violation by the government of the Fiscal Responsibility and Debt Limitation Act, 2005. Upon asking by the chairman that the government debt is at Rs 21.4 trillion and the government and private debt is Rs 25.1 trillion, the DG Debt office acknowledged the figure of debt is accurate. The chairman of the committee also inquired from the DG whether it is true that public debt increased to 68 percent of the GDP which is violation of the debt limitation Act. The Finance Division acknowledged that the country's total debt as percentage of the GDP has increased to 68 percent in 2017 from 64 percent in 2014 and now it is hovering at 67.2 percent.

The DG stated he would like to clarify that circular debt is not part of the total public debt and maintained that the quantum of debt is not in the control of debt management. The committee also stated that Accountant General of Pakistan Revenue (AGPR) has been unable to shift the pensioners on direct credit system (DCR), although it was directed long ago. The committee inquired from the officials of AGPR as to what has been done by them to remove ghost pensioners.

The meeting was told that of the total 183,332 pensioners, only 56,228 pensioners, 31 percent of the total, were converted to DCS system by September 2016 while 127,104 pensioners were on pension payment order (PPO) system. The meeting was told that now 45 percent pensioners have been shifted to DCS system.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2018