Islamabad: President Asif Ali Zardari Thursday summoned his finance
team to get abreast himself about the economic situation amid fast
growing tension between the government and the key state organs.
Presidential
Spokesman Farhatullah Babar issued an official statement only focusing
on economic matters but sources said the main focus of the rare meeting
was how to deal with the new emerging situation after the different
versions of the government and the security institutions, the sources
told Online.
“The Finance Minister Dr. Abdul Hafeez Shaikh and
Finance Secretary Dr. Waqar Masood, briefed the President about overall
economic situation in the country,” Spokesperson to the President Mr.
Farhatullah Babar said.
The President said that gas and power
shortages continue to haunt people and “we need to step up our efforts
to meet these challenges”. He said that the prevailing international
economic situation was not very healthy and efforts must continue to
further stabilize the economy and to fight economic challenges facing
the country.
Babar said that the economic managers briefed the
President about various aspects of the economy and economic performance
during the first five months of the current fiscal year focusing on
critical indicators like broadening tax base, fiscal austerity, exports,
remittances, imports and inflation.
Finance Minister Dr. Hafeez
Shaikh informed that as a result of difficult economic decisions taken
by the present Government, the economy was stable and various indicators
were showing encouraging signs.
He said that efforts to broaden
the tax base have registered a significant success. Up to 16th of
December of the current fiscal year, Rs. 712 billion tax had been
collected as against Rs. 555 billion collection during the corresponding
period last year. It amounted to an increase of 28 per cent over the
corresponding period and exceeded the target of 25%.
On
austerity measures, the Finance Minister informed that that various
measures adopted by the Government have also yielded positive results.
He said that the budgetary expenditure during first five months of the
year which was envisaged to be 42 percent was brought down to 38 percent
indicating that the budgetary control measures were successful.
Despite
worldwide slump in demand, Pakistani exports during first five months
of the current fiscal year have registered an increase of 12 percent
over that of the corresponding period last year.
On remittance
side, an increase of 18 percent was witnessed with $5.2 billion
remittances for the first five months of the current year.
Finance
Minister also informed that by the end of December, the Government
would have provided a total of Rs. 100 billion for developmental
projects in the country. This amount, he said, would be spent on mega
projects in energy, communications and water sector thereby creating
jobs and building infrastructure. The energy projects included that of
Bhasha Dam and Chashma Power Projects, he informed the President.
The
imports during the first five months of the current fiscal year have
registered an increase of 20% over the corresponding period of last year
indicating that the economic activity was gradually picking up and was
on steady course, the President was informed.
The President was
briefed that inflation has also come down during the first five months
of the current fiscal year. The Consumer Price Index (CPI) which was 14
percent in November last year was 10.2 percent in November 2011.
Similarly, the sensitive price index was also witnessing continuously
downward trend during past five weeks.
The President inquired
about the steps taken for extending social safety net to the poorest of
the poor. It was informed that Rs. 20 billion would be provided for BISP
by the end of December which would benefit tens of thousands of the
poor families living below poverty line.
The President remarked
that the improvements in economic indicators were encouraging however,
efforts should continue to keep up the pace and momentum of economic
turns around. Online
