Choices for new finance minister
Tarin will do well by cutting down wasteful expenditures, reducing tax rates
Shaukat Tarin speaks at a meeting in Washington in 2009. PHOTO: AFP
ISLAMABAD:
New Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin has made it clear that his first priority is to achieve a high growth rate of 6-7%. Pakistan is projected to achieve a growth of 1.5% this year.
Our last episode of relatively high growth, up from 4% in 2013 to 5.5% in 2018, was fuelled by the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) funding, which included both loans and investment.
A major contribution was the investment done in the electricity generation sector that saw the country go into an electricity surplus mode.
The power sector circular debt would stay above Rs1.1 trillion by end of fiscal year 2023 against about Rs2.55tr estimated at present. Wikimedia Commons/File
ISLAMABAD: Despite repeated tariff increases, buying out several old independent power plants (IPPs), fuel conversions, tax rationalisations and timely subsidy payments over the next two years, the power sector circular debt would stay above Rs1.1 trillion by end of fiscal year 2023 against about Rs2.55tr estimated at present.
But not doing these ‘surgical actions’ is not an option. Without these measures, the circular debt is projected to reach Rs4.7tr by end of FY2023. With some efficiency improvements in terms of five per cent increase in recovery and less than one per cent in technical losses, the circular debt is projected at Rs4.4tr by 2023, but it would be the “tariff rebasings and quarterly adjustments” that will move the needle down to about Rs3.5tr almost Rs1.1tr in two years.
Ag APP
ISLAMABAD: Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi on Sunday said Pakistan would be happy to talk out differences and resolve outstanding issues through dialogue if India was willing to revisit the unilateral decisions taken on August 5, 2019.
“If India is willing to re-visit some of the decisions that they took on August 5, 2019, Pakistan will be more than happy to engage, sit and talk out our differences and sit and through a dialogue resolve the outstanding issues,” the foreign minister said in an interview with Anadolu Agency of Turkey during his two-day visit there.
He said Pakistan had outstanding issues with India including Kashmir, Siachen, Sir Creek, water and other minor issues and the only sensible way forward was the dialogue. “We cannot afford to go to war, you know, it will be mutually suicidal. And no sensible person will advocate a policy of that nature. So, we need to sit and we need to talk,” he remarked.