(November 28-2022)
Chairman of National Business Group Pakistan, President Pakistan Businessmen and Intellectuals Forum, and All Karachi Industrial Alliance, and former provincial minister Mian Zahid Hussain on Monday said the current account deficit is one of the major problems of Pakistan.
Our economy has suffered current account deficits for 72 years to indiscriminate consumption of foreign goods, he said.
Mian Zahid Hussain said that we sell less of our goods to the outside world but buy more from foreign countries which have led the country to bankruptcy dozens of times.
Talking to the business community, the veteran business leader said that the only way to avoid bankruptcy in Pakistan is to borrow to repay loans which is unsustainable.
Now the debts are becoming unpayable but the policymakers never bothered to learn any lesson, he added.
Mian Zahid Hussain said that our exports, remittances, grants, etc. are not equal to our imports but no serious effort was ever made to increase productivity and no specific steps were taken to reduce consumption of foreign goods.
In the past, Pakistan’s exports have been more than Bangladesh, South Korea, Vietnam, and many other countries, but now Pakistan cannot even think of equaling them.
South Korea’s exports are eighteen times more than Pakistan’s. Last year, Pakistan’s exports were 31 billion dollars while its imports were 80 billion dollars, which is equal to playing with the future of this country.
Pakistan’s tax system is also a major obstacle in the way of development which punishes taxpayers and does nothing to defaulters.
Currently, government agencies have the data of 22 lakh shops, out of which only 30 thousand are paying tax, while the rest are not paying a single rupee as tax, which is surprising.
According to former finance minister Miftah Ismail, the risk of Pakistan’s default is increasing, while current finance minister Ishaq Dar denies it. In order to improve the economic situation, government institutions that lose three billion dollars annually must be privatized. There is an annual loss of four billion dollars in the electricity and gas sectors, which must be eliminated.
He said that such reforms must be made that may reduce the political popularity of the government, but will improve Pakistan’s reputation in the international community and restore the trust of international institutions.
For this, national interest will have to be prioritized over political interest, in which delay may prove very dangerous for the future of Pakistan, he said.
