Current IMF programme to be final one, says Finance Minister Aurangzeb

ARY NEWS

#Khabar #IMFPakistan #IMFProgram #Pakistan #IMF #FinanceMinister #MohammadMalick  Follow the ARY News channel on WhatsApp: https://bit.ly/46e5HzY  Subscribe to our channel and press the bell icon for latest news updates: http://bit.ly/3e0SwKP  ARY News is a leading Pakistani news channel that promises to bring you factual and timely international stories and stories about Pakistan, sports, entertainment, and business, amid others.  Official Facebook: https://www.fb.com/arynewsasia  Official Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/arynewsofficial  Official Instagram: https://instagram.com/arynewstv  Website: https://arynews.tv  Watch ARY NEWS LIVE: http://live.arynews.tv    Listen Live: http://live.arynews.tv/audio  Listen Top of the hour Headlines, Bulletins & Programs: https://soundcloud.com/arynewsofficial #ARYNews  ARY News Official YouTube Channel. For more videos, subscribe to our channel and for suggestions please use the comment section.

Transcript

00:00First of all, let's talk about the energy conundrum, which is the biggest issue in our country.

00:06What is happening on this issue?

00:08We know that the IMF has put a lot of pressure on itself to renegotiate the Chinese power projects.

00:15The government has told the five IPPs that they are free.

00:20They will do the program separately.

00:23But there are serious regulatory and other criminal activities involved in it.

00:28Maybe they will listen to you.

00:30But as far as these power plants are concerned, there is government equity and everything.

00:34Until there is no re-engineering, re-tooling of debt,

00:40how much difference will there be?

00:43Because the biggest issue is energy.

00:45How do you see this?

00:47Thank you, sir.

00:50I was listening to you earlier.

00:52IMF is no panacea.

00:55And we have said that this will be the last program.

00:58This is all means to an end, not an end in itself.

01:02So when we went to this extended program,

01:05the reason for that is that it has two main reasons.

01:08One, to bring permanence into the macroeconomic stability.

01:11And when we talk about macroeconomic stability,

01:14you just mentioned that the currency is stable.

01:16FX reserves are now two months of import cover.

01:20Inflation has come down.

01:22Because of that, the policy rate has come down.

01:24Because of that, the Kaibor has been impacted.

01:29And that will impact the businesses in a positive way going forward.

01:33The second question you have raised is that we have to do structural reforms under this umbrella.

01:42So attached to GDP.

01:44If you have any questions on that, I will definitely talk about it.

01:48The second one is the energy sector reform.

01:50And the third one is indeed the SOE reform and the privatization.

01:54So that the government's footprint is less in it.

01:58Because you have started the discussion with power.

02:01Obviously, Minister Abbas Laghari and Saipan,

02:04Mohammad Ali Sahib are taking it forward.

02:07And there are two or three facets to it.

02:10One is that we are changing the governance.

02:14The boards have been changed.

02:16The SMEs of the private sector of DISCOS have come in it.

02:20Three DISCOS have already been put on the privatization list.

02:24And then apart from that, the tariff that is being discussed.

02:28So there is a local component which you said is government owned or of local investors.

02:33And then the second component is around the Chinese IPPs.

02:37So we are working simultaneously on both of these.

02:42Because I myself am part and parcel of the Chinese IPP debt reprofiling.

02:51So I can definitely talk to you about that.

02:54It is always said that these are CPEC projects.

02:57Why are we not talking about them?

02:59We have already started the discussion with them in terms of maturity extension,

03:05in terms of converting dollar into RMB debt.

03:10We are in the initial stages of those discussions.

03:13But we are taking it forward in the same way with the IPPs on the CPEC side.

03:22The way this discussion is going on, on the local side.

03:25The return on equity, you can't give your relief to the government.

03:29You protect the share of the investor, which is in your own take home.

03:33You can reduce those things.

03:35Because as far as I am concerned, behind the scenes we hear that the Chinese have said

03:39that we will facilitate things off the record.

03:44We have a lot of investments in South Africa and the rest of Africa.

03:47If we retool our agreements a lot, then we will have a lot of problems elsewhere.

03:53So you are between a rock and a hard place.

03:55I understand that.

03:56America has also put a lot of pressure.

03:58We understand that also.

03:59So there will be a way out.

04:01And secondly, there is a time frame.

04:03Because we hear one thing repeatedly about the government, that it is happening.

04:07It doesn't happen.

04:08I will come to you on that too.

04:10No, look, don't say that.

04:13In the last six months, we have done some things on the macroeconomic front.

04:21So at least I would say our direction of travel is correct.

04:29When I and Mr. Vaishal Agari went to Beijing two months ago, we introduced this subject.

04:40We met the NEA, the PBOC and some banks there.

04:45So we introduced this.

04:47It has to be a win-win situation.

04:50What can we do for the IPP sponsors and lenders?

04:56How can we re-profile their payments?

05:01It certainly helps us with respect to the tariffs that we have to give local relief.

05:09But it will also make capacity available.

05:13We will be able to pay their payments.

Category

Transcript

Recommended