Islamabad : The Pakistan Economy Watch (PEW) on Wednesday lauded the recent decisions of Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin regarding improving the economy and providing relief to the masses.
The Finance Minister will provide relief to the masses in the upcoming budget who have suffered from inflation and pandemic, it said.
After taking the oath, the Finance Minister has directed National Price Monitoring Committee and Federal Bureau of Statistics to expand their area of coverage and improve their working so that the government can have a better picture of economic situation and prices, said Dr. Murtaza Mughal, President PEW.
He has also directed to review whole undocumented food supply chain, from farmer to consumer and study their profit margins to ensure the availability of affordable agriculture products to the masses.
A good number of unbanked farmers are getting loans from middlemen on 20 to 30 percent interest, they do not get return of their labour while the middlemen get unbelievable profits hitting buying power of the masses which is being improved.
Dr. Murtaza Mughal said that Fiance Minister has also directed authorities to ensure wheat stock at six million tonnes and import three million tonnes of wheat to bridge the shortfall.
In 2020 the government imported 3.4 million tonnes of wheat while it was exported in 2019 resulting in problems.
The agriculture sector is being revived by planning to provide quality seed, better pesticides, affordable urea, and cheap bank loans to the farmers while ways and means to reduce the impact of climate change on agriculture production are being explored, he informed.