Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Finance Minister Ishaq Dar has said that the opponents will have to wait until 2023 to have a chance at coming into power.

Addressing a ceremony on Saturday, he said that Prime Minister (PM) Nawaz Sharif had to face three major challenges when he came into power in 2013: terrorism, external debts and massive power blackouts.

He went on to say that at that time, terrorism was at its peak and the economy was ruined, while Pakistan was being asked to go bankrupt in 2014. He said that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank (WB) had said that it would take another five years to revive Pakistan’s economy, and 16 hours of electricity load shedding was being observed in cities, marring business activities.

Dar said that Pakistan’s economy leapt forward during the last three years. “The foreign exchange reserves stood at below $7.5 billion, while now they have soared to $19 billion.” He said that the gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate was 4.71 percent, and efforts were underway to scale it up to seven percent in the next two years.

Talking about the fight against terrorism, the finance minister said that hideouts of terrorists had been dismantled in the country, while the situation of law and order had significantly improved in Karachi. He said that Operation Zarb-e-Azb would continue until the elimination of last terrorist.

Ishaq Dar said that projects to produce 10,000 megawatts of electricity would be materialised by March 2018, which would help eliminate load shedding from the country.

“We will not only rein in the power crisis but also add more electricity to the system,” he claimed. “We will generate 2,300MW from Dasu project, 2,000MW from civil nuclear project and 4,000MW from Diamer-Bhasha Dam.”

The IMF, WB and other institutions are predicting Pakistan’s GDP ratio to stand at 5 percent during the current fiscal year, he added. He said that the incumbent government had completed 12 reform agendas of the IMF. There had been a 60 percent increase in tax collection, he said, and added that the country collected Rs 3.112 trillion under the head taxes during the last fiscal year. “We have banned the import of luxury vehicles because we think that all citizens are equal and no one should be allowed to own a vehicle having capacity of more than 3000 CC.”

Dar said that the government had provided Rs 21 billion to exporters under the head of sales tax refunds, and added that the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) was giving more refunds this month to exporters whose refund payment orders (RPOs) were issued by June 30.