Will contact the government after Eid to start the implementation, Malik Bustan. Photo: Screen grab
Karachi: Open market currency dealers will approach the government again next week to begin the process of providing $24 billion in interest-free financing to overseas Pakistanis.
Talking to Express Tribune, President of Exchange Companies Association of Pakistan Malik Bustan said that when this proposal was put before Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Finance Minister Ishaq Dar last month, then they were very enthusiastic about implementing this project. As shown, I will write a letter to both the Prime Minister and the Finance Minister after the Eid holidays.
The General Secretary of the Association, Zafar Paracha, said that Pakistan is rapidly moving towards bankruptcy. If the government considers this plan useful, then the government should implement it immediately. It will create difficulties for the economy.
Also read: Record decline in remittances sent by overseas Pakistanis in January
He added that we understand that due to the fight between the government and the opposition, the government is not getting time to implement this plan. He emphasized that this plan is not a plan B to be followed in case of no IMF deal, but the IMF has to be taken on board to implement this plan, and both plans are one. Must run along.
Zafar Paracha said that it is not such an easy task, instead of our estimate of one billion dollars, we can only get five hundred million dollars on a monthly basis, so the government should implement this project as soon as possible. He said that financing will be done in accordance with FATF’s basic rules and regulations related to anti-money laundering.
Malik Bustan added that this is not the first time that exchange companies will arrange financing for a country suffering from a shortage of dollars, earlier in 1998 when Pakistan was facing a severe financial crisis as a result of global sanctions. We also did a similar financing of $10 billion.
read more: 8.6% decrease in remittances of overseas Pakistanis
He said that the government should approve this policy, Pakistanis living abroad want to help their homeland in large numbers.
It should be noted that Pakistan’s foreign exchange reserves are alarmingly low at $4.03 billion, and Pakistan has a debt repayment of $4.5 billion by June 30, 2023. To deal with this situation, the government has imposed severe restrictions on imports, which have caused a large number of factories to close and an estimated five million people to become unemployed.
Due to the ongoing political upheaval in the country, the government is not able to focus on creating a policy for financing from overseas Pakistanis. Under the proposed plan, the government will receive one billion dollars from overseas Pakistanis on a monthly basis for a period of five years for the next twenty-four months. Intends to do.
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