ISLAMABAD
The Pakistan Industrial and Traders Association Front (PIAF) has called for keeping check on government expenditure and high cost of debt servicing to contain budget deficit, as the Pakistan’s federal budget deficit projection has been revised to high to over Rs5.4 trillion, highlighting the unending fiscal woes that have pushed the country into a debt trap.
The PIAF Chairman Fahimur Rehman Saigol, Senior Vice chairman Nasrullah Mughal and Vice chairman Tahirm Manzoor Chaudhry in a joint statement said that the high cost of doing business has been hurting the economic growth and industry, which faced the brunt of a staggering increase in gas prices. Fahimur Rehman Saigol said that the failure to reform the tax system is a major factor behind heavy domestic and foreign borrowings by the government.
Expressing serious concern over the high jump in country’s budget deficit, Senior Vice chairman Nasrullah Mughal said the revision has been made in light of agreement with the International Monetary Fund, which exposed the massive underreporting of expenditures at the time of budget presentation by the finance ministry.
This is a highly unsustainable level and has already pushed the country into a situation where debt restructuring seems to be the only viable option.
The Vice chairman Tahirm Manzoor Chaudhry maintained that the failure to reform the tax system and increase revenue collection is a major factor behind heavy domestic and foreign borrowings by the government. He said that the privatization commission of Pakistan is struggling for months to effectively put in place the privatization of loss-making public sector enterprises; notably, the Pakistan Steel Mills and Pakistan International Airlines despite the urgency and concern expressed, time and again, by the IMF.
The decision-making processes are likely to be driven and influenced more by conflicting self-interests of the coalition partners, watering down the key objectives. This is not what the country needs in these unprecedented times of political and economic challenges confronting the nation.
