Pakistan owes $24.85 billion to World Bank, ADB, IDB and IFAD: Dar tells National Assembly

A total of $24.85 billion external debt is payable to the World Bank (WB), Asian Development Bank (ADB), Islamic Development Bank (IDB) and International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) while some Rs 2759.98 billion of net domestic loans were borrowed by the present government. A total of Rs 78.12 billion amount of loans were written off by all banks/ DFIs during the last five years.
Finance Minister Muhammad Ishaq Dar revealed this in a written reply to members' question in the National Assembly. He told the house that a total of $13.54 billion were payables/outstanding to World Bank (WB) as on 30-09-2015, $9.4 billion payable to Asian Development Bank (ADB), $1.7 billion to Islamic Development Bank (IDB) and $208.5 million payable to International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).
The Finance Minister said that loans were obtained from World Bank (WB) to execute the following projects (i) Third Poverty Alleviation Fund (ii) Water Sector Capacity Building (iii) Karachi Port Improvement (iv) Tertiary Education (v) Social Safety Net (vi) Tarbela 4th Extension Hydropower Project (vii) Natural Gas Efficiency Project (viii) Dasu Hydropower Stage-I Project (xv) Sindh Water Sector Improvement (x) Skills Development (xi) Sindh Agricultural Growth (xii) Sindh Education Sector-II (xiii) Enhanced Nutrition for Mothers and Children (xiv) Land Record Management & ISP (xv) Punjab Barrages Improvement Programme (xvi) Punjab Irrigated Agriculture Production (xvi) Punjab Education Sector-II (xvii) Punjab Cities Governance Improvement (xviii) Punjab Health Sector Reform Project and (xxv) Punjab Public Management Reform Programme.
He said that loans from IFAD were being used for the following projects; (i) Gwader-Lasbela Livelihood Support Programme (ii) Southern Punjab Poverty Alleviation Programme (iii) Punjab Irrigated Agriculture Investment Programme (Tranches-I, II & III) (iv) Punjab Irrigated Agriculture Investment Programme (Support Component) (v) Power Transmission Enhancement Programme (vi) Flood Emergency Reconstruction Programme and (vii) Power Distribution Enhancement Programme.
The Minster said that debt was obtained from ADB for the following projects (i) Sindh Cities Improvement Investment (ii) Jamshoro Power Generation Project (iii) National Trade Corridor Highway Investment Programme (iv) Social Protection Development Project (v) Trimmu and Punjnad Barrages Improvement Project (vi) Neelum-Jhelum Hydropower Project (Civil works) and (vii) Neelum-Jhelum Hydropower Plant Equipment Project.
He said that loan from IDB were spent for the following projects; (i) Commodity Murabaha Financing Facility (ii) Khanewal-Multan Motorway Project (M-4 Extension) (iii) Renewable Energy Development Sector Investment (iv) Establishment of NUST Teaching Hospital Project (v) Polio Eradication Programme Pakistan and (vi) Support to Basic Education Development Project. About the domestic loans of Rs 2759.98 billion, he said that the total amount of debt servicing paid/accrued on the amount of above loan was Rs 650 billion, during the period of present Government.
About the written off loans by private and public sector's banks, the Minister said that a total of Rs 11.68 billion loans were written off in 2010, Rs 15.06 billion in 2011, Rs 21.02 billion in 2012, Rs 17.76 billion in 2013 and Rs 12.6 billion in 2014. To another question, the Minister said that the government had set tax collection target at Rs 2,605 billion in 2014-15 but collection remained Rs 2,590 billion, which shows 99.4 percent achievement with 14.9 percent growth in collection. He said that a Rs 1072.7 billion tax collection target was set for July-November 2015-16, while collection remained Rs 1053.8, which shows 98.2 percent achievement with 16.9 percent growth in collection.
He said that the targets of the first five months of 2015-16 were missed mainly due to the low growth in the collection of sales tax because of huge decline in prices of oil products, compared with the corresponding period of last year. Decline in sales tax collection on this account was Rs 7.6 billion during July-October, 2015-16, he said.
He said that a huge sum of Rs 25.1 billion in sales tax had been paid back to the taxpayers as refunds during July-November 2015-16 as compared to Rs 19.9 billion in the corresponding period last year.