Ministry ‘too busy’ to brief Senate panel on swelling foreign loans

Committee chairman informed that secretary finance is not available even in the next week

ISLAMABAD: The federal government on Thursday successfully manoeuvred to escape a briefing sought by a parliamentary panel over the thorny issue of $35 billion foreign loans obtained in the past four years as well as alleged double booking of Rs64 billion designed to understate budget deficit.

The Ministry of Finance requested the Standing Committee of Senate on Finance to postpone the briefing, saying that Secretary Finance Shahid Mahmood was busy in internal meetings.

Additional Secretary Finance Akbar Sharifzada informed the parliamentary committee that the secretary would not be available even in the next week for being too busy.

Standing committee’s chairman, Senator Saleem Mandviwalla, expressed his displeasure, saying, “It seems as if the Ministry of Finance does not take the standing committee seriously.”



The standing committee had taken notice of two news stories regarding total borrowings by the federal government, particularly focussing on loans from Chinese banks during the past four years. It had also sought a briefing on another news story about alleged double booking of Rs64 billion of the Pakistan Development Fund Limited as non-tax revenues to understate the budget deficit.

The standing committee also took an exception to the ministry’s request to hold the meeting in-camera. Mandviwalla said the foreign borrowing figures were already publicly available and there was no need to hold the meeting in-camera.

The Express Tribune had reported that former prime minister Nawaz Sharif’s government obtained a whopping $35 billion in new loans during four years to repay the maturing debt and maintain official foreign currency reserves.

In fiscal year 2016-17 alone, $3.9 billion loans were obtained from China including $2.3 billion from Chinese commercial loans.

About $17 billion or nearly half of the total loans obtained from July 2013 to June 2017 were utilised to repay the previous debt and the government added net $18 billion to the country’s total external debt and liabilities.



The government also double-booked Rs64 billion of the PDFL to understate budget deficit for the fiscal year 2016-17 despite the fact that the PDFL money had already been taken into account in fiscal year 2013-14. In fiscal year 2013-14, the government had taken advantage of the PDFL money by placing it under statistical discrepancy.

Sources in the finance ministry said that the ministry was not yet clear about the issue of statistical discrepancy and sought more time from the standing committee to give a reply.

For the fiscal year 2016-17, parliament had approved the budget deficit target at 3.8 per cent of the GDP or Rs1.2 trillion on the request of the federal government.

Legal system

The standing committee also took up the issue of the status of the Competition Commission of Pakistan in the light of petitions filed in high courts that challenged the existence of the CCP.

Attorney General for Pakistan Ashtar Ausaf regretted that Pakistan’s case management system was very weak and the courts were taking longer than the constitutionally assigned time.

The companies have challenged the existence of the CCP on the grounds that after 18th Amendment to the Constitution, the federation cannot legislate on the Competition subject.

However, the attorney-general said that the Competition Act of 2010 was not in violation of the Constitution, hoping that the courts would strike down the appeals filed by private parties. He said the Lahore High Court had reserved a decision on the matter.

Four chief justices heard the CCP case and not even one gave a decision on the matter, said the attorney-general. “We need to reform laws and procedures for expeditious disposal of pending cases,” he said.

On the request of the attorney-general, the standing committee has appealed to the Lahore High Court to decide the CCP matter at the earliest.