Total domestic & external debt stood at 41 trillion rupees: Senate informed

 ISLAMABAD, Nov 12 (SABAH): Minister of State of Parliamentary Affairs Ali Muhammad Khan says the government is taking necessary steps for ensuring fiscal discipline and consolidation, stabilizing the economy and accelerating growth.

Responding to a question during Question Hour in the Senate on Friday, he said debt to GDP ratio decreased by four percent during 2020-21 and government expects that this ratio will decrease further by two to three percent during the ongoing fiscal year.

To another question, the Minister of State informed the House that total domestic and external debt stood at 41 trillion rupees.

Responding to another question, Ali Muhammad Khan said the government has developed a Refinance and Credit Guarantee Scheme for collateral Free Lending to small and medium enterprises of the country.

He said the scheme envisages a time bound refinancing of around sixty billion rupees in three years by State Bank of Pakistan to selected commercial banks.

The Minister of State said total subsidy of 25.84 billion rupees for risk sharing will be provided to State Bank of Pakistan by the government over a period of four years.

Four ordinances were laid before the House.

These include the Public Properties (Removal of Encroachment) Ordinance, 2021; the Regulation of Generation, Transmission and Distribution of Electric Power (Amendment) Ordinance, 2021; the Public Private Partnership Authority (Amendment) Ordinance, 2021 and the Pakistan Council of Research in Water Resources (Amendment) Ordinance, 2021.