Islamabad : Former President ICCI Shahid Rasheed Butt on Sunday said the economy is sinking despite best efforts by the authorities which call for out of the box solutions.
IMF’s prescription is not enough to stabilise the economy therefore a new economic model should be adopted without delay otherwise, there will be no future for Pakistan.
He said that our national debt is now increasing at the rate of Rs18 billion a day; the electricity sector now loses almost Rs2 billion a day and circular debt has reached a level of Rs2.5 trillion.
Our bleeding state-owned companies collectively end up losing Rs1.8 trillion a year while losses in the natural gas sector are almost Rs1 billion a day, he added.
Shahid Rasheed butt said that the federal and provincial food departments have added debt of Rs753 billion while public procurements by the federal and provincial governments stand at Rs7.5 trillion out of which a good portion is lost to the corruption.
The government purchased wheat at a rate of Rs1400 per 40 kg during last season but masses were not provided wheat flour at Rs2800 per 40 kg which indicate serious flaws in the working of federal and provincial food departments, he noted.
The business leader noted that cost of doing business, price of food items and other things is increasing constantly while real reforms are being ignored conveniently.
Some reforms have been initiated in the past and whatever steps were taken in the name of reforms were politically motivates, he observed.
Now the government will have to spend all its income in debt servicing and if a new economic model was not introduced immediately the nation will have to pay a price.
As a first step, economic decisions should not be linked of political considerations to stem the economic collapse, he demanded.