ISLAMABAD, Jan 4 (APP):The economic managers of the country here on Wednesday termed the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf’s (PTI) white paper on state of economy selective, misrepresented and devoid of economic context.
“The PTI’s presentation [white paper] is selective and misrepresented, showing misleading economic indicators,” Federal Minister for Finance and Revenue Senator Mohammad Ishaq Dar told a press conference.
He was flanked by Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Professor Ahsan Iqbal, Federal Minister for Energy Khurram Dastgir Khan, Federal Minister for Economic Affairs Sardar Ayaz Sadiq, Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Marriyum Aurangzeb, and Minister of State for Finance and Revenue Ayesha Ghaus Pasha.
The finance minister said the comparisons made in the white paper were incorrect and devoid of economic context.
He said the economic situation since April 2022 was strongly influenced by the legacy that the new government got from the previous regime, hence what did the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) led government received should be a denominator for comparison.
“This context”, he said, was totally missing in the PTI’s presentation while it had also ignored international economic situation, the commodities super-cycle, Russia-Ukraine war impacts and the catastrophic floods in the country. “These realities should have been kept in mind for making a fair analysis,” he added.
Ishaq Dar said the International Monetary Fund (IMF) had predicted that one-third of the globe would be facing a serious recessional problem in the year 2023 and Pakistan was no exception. The Fund had projected Pakistan’s economic growth at 2.7 percent of the GDP (Gross Domestic Product).
It is pertinent to mention that the PTI in its white paper on Tuesday had painted a bleak picture of the national economy.
The finance minister categorically rejected the PTI’s claim of increase in prices by 100 to 200 percent for being factually incorrect.
Since the PDM government took over the charge, he said, the prices of wheat increased by 33%, cooking oil 21%, pulse Masoor 19.5%, pulse Mash 35%, tomato 13.7%, petrol 47%, electricity 0.5%, and vegetable ghee14.9%.
Ishaq Dar said the PTI’s claim of creating 5.5 million jobs during its government was also incorrect. The official data showed that some 3.2 million jobs were created from 2019 to 2022.
He said the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s (PML-N) previous government collected Rs 2,255 billion in its first year and Rs 3,844 billion in the last year (FY 2018).
The PTI government on the other hand started its first year with negative growth in revenue collection by collecting Rs 3,829 billion while the revenue collection in its fourth year remained Rs 6,148 billion, the minister added.
He said during the first six months of the financial year 2022-23, the revenue collection increased by 17.5% to Rs 3,429 billion as compared to the same period of previous year. He also expressed the government’s resolve to achieve the current year’s target of Rs 7,440 billion.
With respect to revenue percentage to GDP, the minister said the PML-N’s last government left with revenue collection at 9.8% of GDP and the PTI government at only 9.2% of GDP in its last year.
Agriculture credit, he said, had increased from Rs 351 billion in 2013 to Rs 972 billion in 2018 while the PTI government took it to Rs 1,419 billion in its last year. “We will take the credit to Rs 1,819 billion by end of the current fiscal year,” he added.
He said during the PML-N government’s last year (2018), trade deficit stood at Rs 30.9 billion while the PTI government left it at Rs 39 billion. Similarly, he said, the Current Account Deficit was Rs 3.1 billion in the first year of the previous PML-N government, which was brought down to Rs 19.2 billion in 2018.
“I acknowledge the figures cited by the PTI (in the white paper), but its government left the Current Account Deficit at Rs 17.3 billion”, he said, adding the PML-N government under the leadership of Nawaz Sharif had also to fulfill the country’s security requirements, fought wars against terrorists, and also coped with the menace of power load-shedding.
The finance minister said in first five months of the current fiscal year, the Current Account Deficit stood at $3.1 billion against $7.2 billion in same period of previous year, and would be $7 billion at the fiscal year end.
As regards exports, he said, “The last PML-N government started its term with the annual exports of $25.1 billion and ended at $24.8 billion in 2018. On the contrary, the exports during the first two years of the PTI government dipped and then rose to $32 billion in its fourth year, and the main reason for enhanced exports was turf financing of Rs 400 billion by the government at 1% markup rate.
“If we also give such financing of Rs 1,000 billion to the industrialists today, the exports situation will improve considerably,” he added.
The minister said the GDP growth rate in the first year of the PML-N government was 4.05%, which rose to 6.1% in the last with average growth of 4.7% while the PTI regime’s four-year average growth was 3.5%.
“In dollar terms, we added $112 billion to the GDP size, and the PTI could add only $61 billion in its four years’ term.”
He said the PML-N government had enhanced the per capita income from $1389 to $1768 showing an increase of 27.3% while the PTI government could manage a raise of only $30 to $1798.
Regarding the stock market, he said the market index rose from 19,916 to 44,930 points from 2013 to 2018, which went down during the caretaker setup and then the PTI government could manage add only 2000 points to 44,545 points during its four-year tenure.
He said all the major currencies in the world performed negative against US dollar, including Turkish currency which reduced by 34%, Euro by 11%, and Pakistan rupee by 31.3%. Hawala, Hundi and smuggling of the hard earned foreign exchange reserves were also the basic reasons behind weakening of the currency.
The law enforcing agencies were already operating to break the network of smugglers, he added.
To a question, Ishaq Dar said the 9th and 10th reviews with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) would have to be combined. He also expressed the confidence that the coalition government would complete the programme with the IMF as the last PML-N government had done.
To another question, the minister said it was the basic responsibility to check increasing prices of commodities, however, the Federal Government was also playing its role in that regard.
He said despite the proposal of Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority, the Federal Government did not increase the prices to pass on maximum benefit to the masses.
Ahsan Iqbal said inflation was a global phenoma and “we also inherited this menace from the the previous government”.