The Federal Cabinet was told that the government is focusing on increasing exports and foreign exchange reserves.
The cabinet, which met in Islamabad today with Prime Minister Imran Khan in the chair, was informed that the government has taken important steps to significantly bring down primary fiscal deficit, improve nature and quality of domestic and foreign loans, and introduce new products regarding loans.
The Cabinet was briefed that the government inherited a debt of 30 trillion rupees hence it had to take 24 billion dollars of loans to pay off instalments of these loans and to prevent country from bankruptcy.
The meeting was informed the Government is paying ten billion dollars per year in loan instead of five billion dollars as was practice in past governments.
The cabinet was informed that an increase of 7.7 trillion rupees was recorded in government loans last year owing to the restoration of original value of Pakistani currency, whereas coronavirus pandemic cause loss of income of one trillion rupees.
The meeting was apprised that primary deficit has been reduced from 1.5 trillion rupees to one trillion rupees in the current year.
Primary Surplus of 0.2 trillion rupees was recorded in March this year for the first time in last 12 years.
The cabinet also approved proposed visa policy for Afghanistan and allowed British airline Virgin Atlantic to start flights between Pakistan and the United Kingdom.
The meeting allowed one-time pre-shipment to pre-shipment agencies regarding import of wheat by the Trading Corporation of Pakistan.
Regarding steps to reduce circular debt in the power sector, the Cabinet was briefed that circular debt has recorded reduction of over three hundred billion rupees in total debt of 853 billion rupees due to effective measures taken by the government during the current year.
The Cabinet noted that in the wake of renegotiations with the Independent power producers and rationalizing return on equity cover, the benefit of 620 billion rupees is expected in circular debt.
The meeting was told that losses in transmission and distributions are continuously decreasing.
Regarding opening up of schools, the cabinet was told that educational activities will be restored throughout Pakistan from tomorrow, reviving the education of 30 million schoolchildren. The cabinet emphasized on strictly implementing precautionary measures, including use of masks to prevent spread of Coronavirus.