Daily Times

Following the predecessors, the incumbent government has got over $3.8 billion rom different counties and foreign institutions other than International Monetary Fund (IMF) as loan in last 80 days, Daily Times has learnt reliably.

According to a document submitted in the National Assembly by the Ministry of Finance, the government got the said loan from April 11, 2022 to June 30, 2022 from different countries as well local and international organizations.

The documents stated that the said loan was obtained from seven countries and eight banks and some other international institutions while a major chunk out of this amount was given by Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) and China as loan in respect of having good bilateral relations between two countries.

“The KSA and China’s government granted Pakistan $300 million and $59.35 million as bilateral loans respectively,” reads the document. Other countries included France, Germany, Japan, Korea and Kuwait.

“Besides Saudi Arabia and China, $3.91 million, $ 0.43 million, $ 0.58 million, $1.06 million, $0.11 million, have been loaned by France, Germany, Japan, Korea and Kuwait.

Moreover, the government also borrowed billions of dollars from various international organizations in respect of multilateralism.

“The current government borrowed $186.10 million from the Asian Development (ADB), $ 2.75 million from Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, $47.57 million from International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), $346.99 million from International Development Association (IDA), $130.78 million from Islamic Development Bank (IDB), $7.09 million from International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and $25 million from OPEC Fund.

Furthermore, it has got a loan of $ 2,240.31 million from China Development Bank and $ 2,240.31 million from Commercial Bank Meezan.

Earlier, as per available information, Pakistan’s total foreign debt servicing was projected to climb up to $23 billion for new fiscal 2022-23 as repayment of commercial loans. Subsequently, the country was liable to repay on account of amortization and mark-up amount owed by the public sector alone to the tune of $49.23 billion over the next five years period from 2022-23 to 2026-27. For the previous fiscal year 2021-22, it is projected that total debt servicing requirements both in shape of principal and markup would be standing at $12.4 billion for the whole fiscal year and so far the government paid out $6.253 billion repayments in the first eight months till February 2022.

The information suggests that the government will have to pay back the $3 billion Saudi Fund for Development (SFD) Time Deposit in the next financial year. However, the government has already requested the KSA for granting rollover of $3 billion deposits which the KSA agreed to in principle but its exact conditions would have to be worked out.

As per an official data prepared by the Economic Affairs Division (EAD), the debt servicing on account of public sector loans went up to $18.715 billion. The private sector loan repayment will be standing at $4.8 billion, so the total debt servicing requirements will surge to $23.5 billion for the fiscal budget announced a couple of months back.