ISLAMABAD: Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin said the laws of National Accountability Bureau (NAB) are being amended to expedite accountability process and recovery of plundered money.
inance minister was a guest on the Geo News programme Aaj Shahzeb Khanzada Kay Saath where he revealed that the NAB law will be amended in the next few weeks.
Explaining the rationale behind the NAB laws amendment, Minister said the bureaucracy was not performing up to the mark due to the fear of action by the anti-graft watchdog. He minister gave the example of the LNG import, saying that it was imported from Qatar at 13.7% above the Brent rate, and later on at 10.4% above the Brent rate. Despite such a lower import rate, NAB had summoned the files of the agreement. Tarin was speaking at Geo TV’s programme Aaj Shahzeb Khanzada Kay Sath.
He admitted that Pakistan’s import bill was going up, stressing that lower oil prices in the international market and since Pakistan was importing machinery. The minister said the import bill was expected to reach $56 billion if Pakistan showed economic growth.
Speaking on the current account deficit, Tarin said he was unsure whether it would remain in surplus next year or not. However, he added, if it incures a deficit, then it shall be to an extent that the government will be able to manage it.
The minister said that China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) was the biggest opportunity for Pakistan at the moment, as far as investment is concerned. He said Pakistan was establishing special economic zones, adding that Pakistan will have to figure out how to attract Chinese companies who were relocating from Myanmar, Cambodia and Vietnam.
He said the Joint Coordination Committee (JCC) on the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) was being held, which would discuss foreign funding in various projects, and the CPEC was also becoming functional now which would give a boost to the economy.
