The Finance Ministry is reluctant to share the details of external financing needs of the country and plan to meet them at a time when some members of National Assembly Standing Committee on Finance have projected $15-16 billion financing gap for the current fiscal year.
Soon after the meeting of the National Assembly Standing Committee on Finance started under the chairmanship of MNA Qaiser Ahmed Sheikh Friday, MNA Asad Umar pointed out that there is nothing in the minutes of the last committee regarding information he had sought from the Finance Ministry about the financing needs. "I asked the Finance Ministry to provide information about the financing needs and how these will be met in the remaining months of the current fiscal year," he stated.
Additional Finance Secretary Abdul Akbar Pirzada stated, "We need more time to provide the information." Upon which, the member of the committee Asad Umar stated, "The country is hurtling into economic crisis but the Finance Ministry is seeking more time to provide information even about financing needs." He said that the government has been taking foreign loans but instead of using them for productive purpose, these are used either for reserves building or budgetary support.
He said that the future scenario of the current account deficit and financing needs is very disturbing as the current account deficit is feared to be in the range of $15-16 billion. He further stated that the country is facing very serious economic challenge and the finance committee must take up the financing gap as single point agenda in the next meeting and advisor to prime minister on finance, minister of state for finance and other senior officials of the economic team should given an accurate picture of financing needs and the government's strategy to meet them.
While considering the matter pertaining to promotion policy for National Bank of Pakistan's employees and details of recently promoted officials/officers and criteria adopted by the NBP, the committee expressed its concern on the absence of the president NBP from the meeting. The committee unanimously recommended to governor State Bank of Pakistan to thoroughly probe the alleged misappropriations in the promotions of the NBP officers and report about its findings to this committee in writing within 15 days, positively. The committee was also briefed by the Secretary Economic Affairs Division (EAD) on foreign loans and grants received by the country during the last five year and stated that country received $34.1858 billion loans and $2.663 billion grants during the last five years through various sources. The meeting was further told that the country's external debt stood at $85 billion with $63.6 billion public debt and $21 billion other debt including government guarantees. The committee member disputed the claim of EAD that commercial borrowing was $7.2 billion during the last five years and stated that the figure of short-term commercial borrowing was understated.
The acting chairman Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) briefed the committee on the agenda item of inside trading in stock exchange and stated that SECP has taken cognizance of the offence of insider trading and accordingly has filed criminal complaints before the court of law.
The meeting was attended by Saeed Ahmed Khan Manais, Khalid Mansoor, Dr Shezra Mansab Ali Khan Kharral, Syed Naveed Qamar, Syed Mustafa Mehmud, Asad Umar, Abdul Rashid Godil, Muhammad Ali Rashid and Sher Akbar Khan, MNAs, besides the senior officers from Ministry of Finance & Revenue, EAD, SECP, NBP and Ministry of Law & Justice.
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