Govt will not delay external payments: Dar

Stresses country will take initiatives to promote IT and agriculture

KARACHI:

Finance Minister Ishaq Dar has reaffirmed that it is the government’s top priority that no delay occurs in external payment and it is promptly being done.

“We will come out of the economic crisis and come up with new ideas and initiatives which the country actually deserves through agricultural revolution and special focus on IT,” he said while talking to a delegation of the Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI), led by Businessmen Group Chairman Zubair Motiwala, on Saturday.

Dar declared that the government would unveil a business and people-friendly budget for fiscal year 2023-24.

He assured the delegation that the government would provide full support to the business and industrial sector through ease of doing business so that economic growth and stability could be ensured.

The minister, while welcoming the KCCI’s budgetary suggestions, underlined the government’s resolve to address the challenges being faced by the business and industrial community.

He emphasised that the present government could not be held responsible for the economic crisis but appreciated it for taking the responsibility to meet all international commitments.

“The government has been trying in the most difficult conditions to fulfill all previous commitments to save Pakistan’s credibility, which is the basic reason why the business community and the common man are finding themselves overburdened due to exorbitant electricity and gas tariffs along with general inflation,” the minister remarked.

“There’s no quick fix and it will take time as we had faced such challenges in 1998 and 2013 but all of those were efficiently tackled but it took time.”

Dar pointed out that Pakistan was earlier going in the right direction but political instability destroyed everything, plunging the country’s economy from 24th position to 47th position in 2022, “which is most painful for all of us”.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 4^th, 2023.

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