ISLAMABAD: Taking notice of declining exports, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar on Friday called for boosting exports, and said that the devaluation was not the answer to check the declining trend.

“We have to identify and remove all bottlenecks,” the minister said while presiding over the third meeting of the Monetary and Fiscal Policies Coordination Board. He said that the commerce ministry has been asked to submit measures for their inclusion in the finance bill.

Dr Ishrat Hussain, a former governor of State Bank called for reforming the tariffs and taxation system.

Finance Minister says the devaluation is not the answer to check the declining trend in exports

Mr Ishaq Dar underlined the importance of resolving energy issues. He said that the government was implementing time-bound strategy to tackle price distortions, insufficient collections, costly and untargeted subsidies, governance, and regulatory deficiencies, and low efficiency in energy supply and distribution with the support of development partners.

Planning and Development Minister Ahsan Iqbal stated that the government needs to enhance exports according to its real potential, removing structural problems and cost issues.

“We need to align our industrial sector along with SMEs and other sectors to increase FDI and exports,” Ahsan suggested.

Finance Secretary Waqar Masood informed the meeting that during the first 10 months of fiscal year 2014-15, exports stood at $19.926 billion while imports stood at $37.849bn.

State Bank Governor Ashraf Mahmood Wathra informed the meeting that all monetary aggregates are moving in comfortable zone. The credit to private sector is increasing and borrowing of the government from SBP has declined. He also briefed the meeting on the impact of monetary policy on growth, investment and balance of payments.

Published in Dawn, May 16th, 2015

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