ISLAMABAD, Jun 8 (APP):Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Professor Ahsan Iqbal on Thursday said during the current fiscal year Pakistan faced unprecedented financial and natural calamities, so it was not a ‘normal year.”
Addressing a news conference while launching the Pakistan Economic Survey 2022-23 along with Minister for Finance and Revenue Senator Mohammad Ishaq Dar, he termed the FY 2022-23 “the year of force majeure due to the extraordinary situation confronted by the country after the previous government allowed $84 billion unnecessary imports, $50 billion trade deficit, the Finance Division’s inability to pay any penny for the last quarter of 2021-22 and devastating floods of the last year.
Elaborating what he called “unprecedented tragedies”, the minister said the country faced $50 billion trade deficit mainly because of the $84 billion imports, which the previous government of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) allowed in its last year for luxury items and to oblige friends.
“The $84 billion imports pushed the country into the severe economic crisis that has eaten away all the foreign exchange reserves.”
The second tragedy, the minister said, was the Finance Division’s inability to issue any development budget [zero] for the last quarter of 2021-22 due to the non-availability of funds because of failed economic policies of the PTI government.
He said the 4th quarter funds amounting to Rs 240 billion were meant to be spent on different development schemes that had to contribute in improving the national economy. “It happened for the first time in the country’s history that there was zero release.”
Last year, he said, the nation witnessed a mega-level climate disaster in the form of heavy rains and floods that caused widespread devastation never seen earlier in Pakistan and even in the world. “The rains and floods caused almost $31 billion loss to Pakistan.”
In 2017-18, Ahsan Iqbal said, he had presented a development budget of Rs 1,000 billion, and when the incumbent government came into power last year its size came down to Rs 550 billion.
For the upcoming fiscal year (2023-24), he said, the government had allocated Rs 1,150 billion development funds. “It is happening for the first time in the country’s history that the development budget has been increased more than 100 per cent in just a period of two years.”
The minister said the government had increased the budget of Higher Education Commission from Rs 26 billion to Rs 60 billion in two years which showed around 131 per cent unprecedented growth.
He said there were around Rs 80 billion to execute development schemes related to information technology, youth, Green Revolution 2.0, start-ups and education. “First-time such initiatives are being taken which have a direct link with our youth and future.”
