Pakistanis Remittances were at a historic high level over 13 billion dollars = Finance Minister briefs Prime Minister on country’s economic situation

  Islamabad:  July 01, 2012

Finance Minister Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh called on Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf at the PM’s House today and briefed him on the economic situation in the country.

The Finance Minister said that the fiscal year 2011-12 ends with a growth of 3.7% presenting an improvement over last three years.  Similarly, the Minister said, better performance is visible in the decline in the rate of inflation from 13% last year to 11% in the year just concluded.

The benefit of decline in international fuel prices, the Minister said, has been passed on to the consumers and in the last 45 days, prices of fuel, diesel and kerosene have been brought down three times already during the last 45 days.

The Minister said the financial year has also ended with foreign exchange reserves over 15 billion dollars, inspite of paying back the IMF 1.2 billion dollars during the year as per the schedule.

The Minister said, export remained strong inspite of global economic crisis and are likely to maintain upward momentum in the year 2012-13 as well.

The Finance Minister highly appreciated the role of expatriate Pakistanis and said the remittances were at a historic high level over 13 billion dollars.

The Finance Minister said with satisfaction that the year 2011-12 has also ended with record level of tax revenues, which are expected to surpass the Rs 1910 billion – an increase of Rs 450 billion, showing a growth rate of 23%, the highest level of growth in single year in Pakistan’s history.

The Finance Minister further said that the financial year 2011-12 also ended with successful completion of Federal PSDP where projects benefiting the economy worth Rs 300 billion were undertaken showing 100% utilization and completion of more than 200 projects.

The Finance Minister also briefed the Prime Minister on the revival programme of Pakistan Steel Mills for which allocation have been made by Ministry of Finance to ensure the success of the new management of the Steel Mills and to gradually increase the output from present 20% utilization to 80% utilization of the Steel Mills capacity to become profitable.

The Finance Minister said, the recent improvement in the production of electricity sector from 10000 MW to about 14000 MW has given a relief to the public but greater efforts would be required from the management of the electricity sector and relevant Ministries to overcome this challenge on a fast track basis.

Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf expressed his satisfaction at the economic stability and appreciated the successful efforts of the team under the leadership of the Finance Minister and directed that prudent economic policies should be continued.

The Prime Minister also directed that the incoming year’s PSDP allocated to projects based on regional balance and completion of on-going projects show that the maximum benefits can be made available to the public especially the people belonging to Balochistan, FATA and other less developed regions of the country.

The Finance Minister also gave an update on the working of the Cabinet Committee on Energy.