Finance Minister Ishaq Dar on Wednesday said that China and Saudi Arabia are set to strengthen Pakistan’s foreign exchange reserves much before the end of January.
The minister also announced that the government was considering imposing a flood levy on the wealthy and a significant gain tax on banks’ forex earnings to boost the revenue.
“Our foreign exchange reserves by end-June would be much better than you can think,” told the Finance Minister while addressing a joint news conference with five other PML-N ministers.
The press conference had been called in response to a “white paper” launched by the opposition Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) one day earlier, suggesting that the country was on the verge of anarchy because of unemployment and hyperinflation.
During the presser, Mr. Dar emphasized that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) program would reach its conclusion at all costs with the following advances in the finance sector of the country:
- China and Saudi Arabia would enhance their support
- government-to-government (G2G) disinvestments would be completed
- current account deficit would be about $3 billion less than earlier projections.
Finance Minister once again ruled out the possibility of the country defaulting on its foreign debt, insisting that such speculation being pushed by the opposition party was just “a pack of lies” published in the white paper and was allegedly based on misleading numbers, selective data, factually incorrect and devoid of economic context.
Talking about the flood levy, the minister said, “We are in any case planning to beef up revenues and considering a flood levy and a substantial recovery on account of unprecedented foreign exchange windfalls” earned by the banking sector. He, however, assured that the government would not take any initiatives that would add up to the burden of local people already suffering.