LAHORE, Dec 14: If you have dollars, sell them now. This tip was proffered on Saturday by none other than Finance Minister Ishaq Dar to businessmen and others allegedly hoarding the greenback in anticipation of a further decline in the exchange rate.

“The rupee is going to bounce back,” Mr Dar said with an emphatic tone in a speech at an annual dinner thrown by the All Pakistan Textile Mills Association.

But many in the audience were not pleased with the ‘advice’. One businessman expressed dismay over tarring his community with an ‘insinuation’ that “all of us are dollar hoarders.

“I wasn’t expecting such a rash statement from him at a function where we gathered to celebrate the grant of GSP+ status. If he knows that any exporter or any businessman has squirrelled dollars outside the country, he should name and shame him.

“But he should have avoided stigmatising the entire community,” the tycoon fumed.

Mr Dar, who often insists that he is “allergic” to the very idea of currency depreciation or devaluation, said he could “guarantee” that the dollar was not going to appreciate against the rupee any longer. “You should trust me when I tell you that the rupee is going to improve from now on,” he told the textile tycoons who had gathered at the Governor’s House from across the country.

The minister promised to take steps for improving the exchange rate over the coming days and weeks, but sought to clarify that he had never claimed to bring down the rate to Rs98-99 a dollar, as the media had widely quoted him as saying.

The rupee has regained some of the ground in the inter-bank market it had lost against the greenback since July as a result of Mr Dar’s meeting with the heads of the commercial banks a few days back. He said the exchange rate would improve further once the foreign official inflows — Coalition Support Fund dues of $1.5bn, PTCL privatisation proceeds of $800m, assistance from multilateral donors like the World Bank for power and other projects, etc — started pouring in from Jan 1.

“The reserves will keep building on a daily basis and reach $20bn in three years.”

NOT IMPRESSED: Commenting on the minister’s ‘advice’, A financial analyst agreed, saying the exchange rate was determined by the market forces of demand and supply. Instead of advising the people to unload their dollar stocks, he argued, the minister should be working to improve the foreign currency reserves to end speculative pressure on the rupee. “Once the supply of the dollars improves in the market, the rupee will strengthen by itself.”

The analyst said the minister’s statement reflected his desperation to check foreign exchange drain as the reserves fell to a 12-year low of $2.9bn on Dec 6.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who was to chair the event, could not make it to the dinner because he was unwell.

The minister said the government would extend its full support to the textile industry to take full advantage of the trade concessions given by the EU. In response to a demand by the All Pakistan Textile Mills Association leader Gohar Ejaz, he said the government was taking measures to provide gas to the captive power plants of the textile industry in Punjab for two days a week during the winter. “We will ensure that the textile industry continues to get gas even if it means short blackouts of 1-2 hours (for domestic consumers) and increased use of expensive furnace oil to keep the power plants operative.”

He promised to provide the industry cheaper credit and greater market access to the United States as well.

He urged the business community to take the advantage of an amnesty scheme announced last month to encourage people to bring out their black money and invest it in new projects to create jobs.

“It is time to invest in Pakistan,” he said, adding that no question would be asked about the source of their investments if their new projects started commercial production before June 30, 2016.

He said the GSP+ status would revolutionize the economy and compensate for the loss of infrastructure because of the war on terror.

European and American diplomats and members of the European Parliament were also present on the occasion.