August 03, 2007	Friday	Rajab 18, 1428

ISLAMABAD, Aug 2: State Minister for Finance Omar Ayub Khan on Thursday informed the National Assembly that the government had no plan for printing currency notes to finance its budget deficit.

He stated this while replying to a written question of MNA Sher Akbar Khan who sought details about any proposal to print more currency notes for circulation and measures taken for controlling inflation.

He said the issuance of printing of currency notes was decided by the State Bank in accordance with demand for money in the market to accomplish different financial transactions.

The objective of the monetary policy was to keep supply of money below nominal GDP growth and this had successfully being done by the SBP, he added.

The minister said that the government had been using a wide range of price stabilisation measures such as liberalising imports, reforms for increase in agricultural product, improvement in marketing mechanism and intervention in the market through organisations like Utility Stores Corporation (USC) and Trading Corporation of Pakistan (TCP) to keep inflation under control.

Ensure competition and fair play in the market, the government was in the process of converting the existing Monopoly Control Authority (MCA) into competition authority by providing it effective legal powers and authority to prevent uncompetitive behaviour.

The establishment of competition authority was at a fairly advanced stage, the minister added.