‘Will go home’ if PM Imran not satisfied with finance ministry performance: Shaukat Tarin

KARACHI: Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin says he will resign if Prime Minister Imran Khan is not satisfied with the performance of the finance ministry.

Shaukat Tarin’s remarks came after his ministry was not included in the top 10 best performing federal ministries, The News reported.

As per the details, after attending a ceremony at the Karachi Chamber of Commerce & Industry (KCCI), Tarin did not take questions when media persons tried to talk to him.

However, when a reporter told him that the prime minister did not seem happy with the performance of his ministry, he responded: “We will go home. What will we do.”

Government made all-out efforts to control inflation
Earlier, Tarin told the KCCI members that the government made all-out efforts to control inflation, caused by domestic factors. “We can’t do anything to check inflationary trends, caused by the imported factors,” he stated. The finance minister said inflation was not worrisome for Pakistan only but even the US, the UK and Germany were concerned about it as hike in the prices of commodities at the global level had caused problems around the world.

“Even US President Biden telephoned Saudi King Salman over the soaring prices of crude oil in the global market,” he added. Tarin attributed the rising inflation in the country towards global trends and said that the government had been taking the hit of Rs22-24 billion monthly for not raising taxes on petroleum products despite soaring prices of crude in the international market.

“We have brought down the sales taxes on petroleum products to zero and even reduced petroleum development levy (PDL) to stabilise the domestic oil prices despite surge in the global market,” Tarin pointed out. He said that prices of cooking oil, pulses and coal had also risen to their highest level in the international market and Pakistan was dependent on imports to meet the domestic needs of these products. Tarin said that inflation could be countered by increasing the income of the middle class. Under the vision of Prime Minister Imran Khan, a huge programme would be kicked off soon to shore up the income of middle class segments of society.

He claimed that the economy was on the right track and Pakistan needed sustainable and inclusive growth to get rid of loans repeatedly from International Monetary Fund (IMF), other donor agencies and countries. “Pakistanis are a resilient nation and can turn around the situation provided they are given level playing field,” he added. He said China had agreed to help Pakistan in various areas of the economy during the recent visit of Prime Minister Imran Khan to the country. China will help in end-to-end agriculture to raise the yield in this sector as well as support in Information Technology (IT) by investing in it, relocation of industrial units in the special economic zones and for job creation for the youth of Pakistan. “The prime minister asked Chinese leadership to help Pakistan in the industry in order to raise the country’s export to $50 billion in next five years to balance the foreign trade,” he said.

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