Budget to yield good results: Mian Mansha

ISLAMABAD: Declaring Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin’s budget good, Chairman Nishat Group Mian Muhammad Mansha Saturday hoped that it would yield good results.

Speaking in Geo News programme ‘Naya Pakistan Shahzad Iqbal Ke Saath’, he said the government’s growth policy was a positive step and the business community as well as the government authorities would have to take the economy forward jointly.

He hoped that the growth rate might go beyond 4%. He said Pakistan performed far better than many countries during the COVID-19 pandemic.

He said good decisions were made by the government on coronavirus, which helped curtail it and keep the pandemic in control.

He said the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) took a good initiative by giving loans to various companies for payment of staff salaries and in various cases the loans were rescheduled for the purpose.

He said the China-USA tussle also benefited Pakistan, as it received various textile and other orders in that backdrop. Mian Mansha regretted that Pakistan delayed the start of vaccination against coronavirus, and the process would have to be accelerated.

He said the SBP pumped liquidity resulting into economic growth, and it was the right policy. In the USA and Europe, he said, central banks continued pumping money into the market to continue the flow of economy.

To a question, he said taking interest rate to 13% was a wrong decision, but the SBP rectified the policy soon. He said the bank interest rate was 7% right now which could be lowered further by one percent.

He said Pakistan’s growth rate was better than various countries despite challenges, and the government would have to take more measures to maintain the growth rate.

Mian Mansha said the public sector losses could be lowered through privatisation of units and industries.

He said Pakistan’s privatisation policy had produced better results than other countries. He said due to deregulation of the telecom industry, a Rs120 call was made as cheap as Rs2.

He said the energy units would have to be privatised to reduce circular debt.

He said the Pakistani banks, especially the SBP, were performing very well. He said even the hiring of professionals by the public sector entities could not end losses, as that could only be done be the unit owners.

Mian Mansha said calling each other thief would not help take the national economy forward. He said even the bureaucracy was in a state of fear at the moment and it would have to be brought out of that fear for running the country and the economy smoothly.

He said the real issue of the country was not corruption but incompetence and lack of decision-making. He said the corruption issue would have to be deferred to another time, and currently all would have to move forward to improve national economy.

Mian Mansha cited his talk with the Bangladesh Prime Minister Hasina Wajid, who told him that she and Khalida Zia waged a political fight against each other, but never rejected any agreement, signed by them as the prime minister.

He said there was a change in the behaviour of NAB [National Accountability Bureau] lately, as it had not made any case against any major business group during the past months.

He believed that the buyers would show interest if the government decided to privatise power DISCOs.

He said the government prepared a report on independent power producing companies but nobody talked to them. He said the IPPs agreements were signed during Pervez Musharraf era, and there was no corruption in those pacts.

Mian Mansha said his group was requested to install power plants. When the agreements were signed, dollar was trading at 60 rupees, but now it costs 160 rupees and will definitely increase the companies’ profits.

He said the government called them [IPPs] and they agreed to give Rs800 billion concession. He said his four power units were still contributing 1100MW electricity.

“If those projects were costly, why the government was still bearing with them?”

He said the IPPs were not at fault if the national economy failed to make progress.

He said it was a big issue that governments here did not survive more than two, three years.

Mian Mansha hoped that the textile sector would make progress and its exports would increase in near future. He said businesses were shifting from China currently, and Pakistan could benefit from it.

He said Pakistan’s exports stood at $26 billion, which was negligible compared with other countries’ exports. He said even its credit went to Razak Dawood, who made lots of efforts for increasing exports.

Mian Mansha appreciated the government’s construction industry policy, as progress of this industry results in progress of 15-20 more industries.

He said Jahangir Tareen was a very good sugar producer, and what was happening to those engaged in this business was before everyone.

About future plans, Mian Mansha said he will soon establish a big dairy industry in Pakistan with the help of a Turkish company.

Speaking in the programme, Minister for Production and Industries Khusro Bakhtiar said the valuable revenue was generated by increasing exports. He said the large-scale manufacturing sector had registered 13% growth and overall the national growth rate was set at 6% for the current fiscal year.

To a question, he said the country would have to follow the IMF package due to its economic situation. However, the government refused to accept the Fund’s demand to increase electricity tariff and was trying to convince it on its policy on the energy sector.