PTI Doubled National Debt, Didn’t Repay A Single Penny – Miftah
ISLAMABAD: PMLN Central Leader and Former Federal Finance Minister Miftah Ismail termed PTI’s economic performance is total disaster where the government has added thousands of billions of debt while paying back not a single penny of the debt.
In a video message Miftah said PTI is only raising expenses, deficit and debt on the country in the worst manner imaginable. He pointed out that PTI took the loan from Rs 25,000 billion to Rs 36,000 for two years but the tax revenue was stuck at the same point in real terms.
He said the PTI government increased debt but totally failed to increase the country’s tax capacity.
He said PTI’s drastic cut to the development budget resulted in zero infrastructural development, no new plans and zero relief to the nation. In two and a half years, PTI has plunged the country into a quagmire of debt and this government’s claim of borrowing to repay the loan is a complete lie. They only re-roll the loan. Instead of repaying the loan, PTI gave the bond in exchange for the bond, that is, giving a new date for repaying the loan. Imran Khan did not repay the loan to Saudi Arabia out of his own pocket but from China”, he added.
“When the PML-N came to power in 2013, it had a debt of Rs 14,000 billion. This total debt included both external and internal debt. One month after the departure of the PML-N government, the total debt was Rs 24,952.9 billion or about 25,000 billion. The PML-N borrowed a total of Rs 10,600 billion in five years. With this borrowed amount PML-N carried out numerous other development works including power plants. Whereas, PTI borrowed more than Rs 11,400 billion in the first two initial years alone without a single development project”, he said.
Miftah said in June 2020, Pakistan’s debt shot from 25,000 billion to 36,400 billion. He reminded that during the PML-N era, external debt and liabilities were Rs 11,575 billion while under the PTI regime, they had reached Rs 18,969 billion in just two years, showing a loss of Rs 7,500 billion. He also compared the fact that during PMLN era the loan was around $ 70 billion, whicn under PTI is now $ 80 billion.
The former Federal Minister Finance said PTI had increased Pakistan’s debt by 40 percent in just two years. This, he said, means that PTI alone took almost the same amount of loan that all previous governments took collectively over the past 75 years.
He warned that if the government’s borrowing rate remains the same, the country already in crisis will face even more grave problems. He expressed alarm over the fact that even at the rate of GDP, the PTI government is increasing national debt at an extremely rapid rate.
“The Debt was 65 percent of GDP when PML-N came to power and 72 percent on completion of its tenure. But during PTI tenure, the debt-to-GDP ratio has risen to a staggering 85 percent, with the debt increased by 15 percent in just two years. During the PML-N era, the debt was increasing at 2 percent per annum; PTI is increasing at a rapid rate of 8 percent which is a 400 percent increase”, he said.
He explained that PTI’s claim is totally inappropriate and false that development projects left debt. The Toll tax on these motorways, highways, airports and power plants is taken to repay the loan, he said.
Miftah said it is inappropriate for PTI to say that the previous government left us a debt, every government had this debt. When PMLN came into power, the tax capacity was so low that only Rs 1,900 billion was being collected in taxes. But PMLN increased this tax capacity Rs 3,850 billion. He questioned if PTI increase the national income by any means.
