Finance Minister (FM) Abdul Hafiz Sheikh has said state of national
economy is showing positive indicators during the first month of
Financial Year, 2011-12.
He said this while giving briefing to the Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani here Thursday.
The
Finance Minister said that the revenue collection during the month of
July was Rs. 105 billion, which is an increase of 36% during the
corresponding period of last July. The exports, he said, were 2.3
billion dollars, an increase of 27% than the month of July last year.
The Finance Minister further said that the remittances in July during
the FY-2011-12 stood at 1.1 billion dollars representing an increase of
35% than the last month of July of the FY-2010-11.
Finance
Minister Abdul Hafiz Sheikh informed the Prime Minister that the
government did not resort to borrowings from the State Bank of Pakistan
during the first month of FY-2011-12. The Finance Minister apprised the
Prime Minister about the deliberations of the High-Powered Committee
constituted by the Prime Minister under his chairmanship to seek
out-of-box solution to un-scheduled load-shedding in the country.
Dr
Hafiz Sheikh informed that the Committee would submit its
recommendations to the Cabinet soon after the month of Ramadan. Other
members of the Committee are Minister for Water and Power Syed Naveed
Qamer, Minister for Petroleum Dr Asim Hussain, Governor State Bank and
Deputy Chairman Planning Commission.
The Finance Minister
elaborated upon the key areas, which would be put into use to get the
people of the country out of the agonizing pain of load-shedding. These
are corporate governance, energy mix, recovery of dues, regulatory
issues relating to energy sector, appropriate budgeting for resolution
of circular debt and institutional arrangements to ensure
non-recurrence of these problems. The Finance Minister expressed his
resolve to move on emergent basis in pursuance of the Prime Minister’s
directive so that people of the country could be relieved of the burden
of unscheduled load-shedding. Online
