Contrary to its claims of making Pakistan an economically sovereign country, the government has obtained $409 million foreign loans besides its domestic borrowing of Rs 126.404 billion from March to May, 2005. This information was placed before the National Assembly on Monday in response to a query raised by Yasmeen Rehman.
In his written reply, the Minister of State for Finance and Revenue, Omar Ayub Khan, said that foreign loans amounting to $409 million were obtained/contracted by the government from the banks and financial institutions during the period.
According to details, loans have been obtained for education, water, power and governance sector. Nearly $150 million are for power, $124.9 million for water, $27.9 million for education and around $106.2 million were obtained from bank and financial institutions for governance sector.
On the domestic front, the government borrowed Rs 126.404 billion from the banking and non-banking sources during the period of March to May 2005.
Moreover, the House was told that Pakistan's total export of textile products to European Union amounted to $1.67 billion for 2004-05. Out of this, $331 million exports were of bedlinen and $1.34 billion of other textile items.
It was further stated that World Trade Organisation (WTO) has so far not granted extension to the deletion program in the automobile sector.
However, import of motorcars is allowed in Pakistan, as it is consistent with WTO rules.
Import of motor vehicles in Complete Build Up (CBU) condition is permissible while import of motorcars in Completely Knocked Down (DKD) condition is permissible to the reorganised assemblers approved by the Ministry of Industries and Production for local assembling and manufacturing.