Ishaq Dar, Pakistan’s finance minister, stated on Wednesday that Pakistan is seriously considering importing oil from Russia. If India is getting oil, Pakistan can also receive it, he added. This information has been forwarded to the appropriate parties in Washington.
He declared that he would uphold the agreements his forerunners had made with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
The finance minister stated in a press conference following the All Pakistan Chartered Accountants Conference (APCAC) 2022 on Sustainability, Technology, and Transformation that Pakistan would purchase oil from Russia if the price was lower than or equal to that at which India purchases oil. When we told the US about purchasing oil from Russia, they had no objections.
“During my recent trip to Washington, we informed the US authorities about Islamabad’s active consideration of obtaining oil from Russia at lower prices, and they raised no objections. Dar said, “We will make a choice that is in the best interests of the nation overall. In response to a query about the currency rate, he stated that in accordance with the real effective exchange rate, the exchange rate should drop below Rs200 against the US dollar (REER). He claimed that the exchange rate would be brought down to reflect its true value, and that he would shortly meet with bankers to inform them that currency speculators would not be permitted to manipulate the exchange rate.
Dar claimed that the country’s inflation was the result of four years’ worth of policy, not just a few months, and that the government was making every effort to control it. According to the finance minister, we have already given the people some respite by lowering the cost of petroleum items, and we will do so as quickly as we can.
When asked whether Pakistan would ask the IMF to relax the restrictions on the petroleum tax and electricity rates, he responded that the country would uphold all commitments made by the PTI administration or by his predecessor because Pakistan is a sovereign state and therefore could not go back on its word.
In response to a question, he said that while Mainline-1 should have been built for an estimated $6 billion, its price has since risen to $12 billion. He claimed that the price of ML-1 quadrupled in rupee terms, going from Rs600 billion to Rs2400 billion, and he questioned who was in charge of such a massive loss.
According to him, the CPEC contract is worth $46 billion, of which $36 billion was used for energy-related projects. According to him, ML-1’s construction will cost $6 billion, with the remaining $3 billion to be used for an infrastructure project. However, because the ML-1 could not be built, its price has increased four times in rupees and by two times in dollars. He said that Pakistan met with every requirement of the FATF action plan and expressed optimism that Islamabad will be removed from the grey list.
He stated that they hoped for a successful outcome but did not want to interfere with the FATF’s statement. He claimed that other international bonds were offered with floating guarantees whereas the Islamic Sukuk bond was launched with asset-back guarantees. He asserted that asset-backed guarantees for Sukuk bonds must be offered if the nation intended to transition to Sharia-compliant instruments.
