Muhammad Nisar Shekhani, Chairman, Site Association of Industry (SAI), has hailed the ahead of schedule payment of $ 1.17 billion debt.
Nisar said that this was entirely due to fiscal policies of President Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Zafarullah Khan Jamali and his government.
He said that Finance Minister Shaukat Aziz very deftly managed the finances and in the process, has put the clock backward.
"Today, we as Pakistanis can raise our heads with pride, dignity and respect for achieving what was an illusion only a few years back," he added.
Quoting Shaukat Aziz, he said, that the government intended to repay a minimum another 1 billion dollars foreign expensive debt during the current calendar year but with the payment of 1.17 billion dollars debt the total foreign debt and foreign exchange liabilities would come down from 38.5 billion dollars a few years ago to 33.5 billion dollars June 30, 2004.
This repayment ahead of schedule would provide a saving of 300 million dollars (Rs 17.1 billion) to Pakistan in interest payments, "which is an enthralling news," Nisar said.
"This will definitely have a very bouncing effect on our economy and helped us a lot in maintaining our balance of payment position, drawing more investors and making additional funds available for development projects," he added.
Comments
Comments are closed.