Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan on Monday said that the country, which is borrowing money to pay interest on loans, is actually sitting on “dead capital” worth Rs 300 billion. The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief said that “dead capital” is in the form of government-owned lands with buildings.
Taking to microblogging site Twitter, the Pakistan Prime Minister said that he had received the figures of 90 per cent of state-owned land in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Punjab and federal areas.
So a country that has to borrow money to pay interest on its loans (burdening our future generations) - & daily interest payment is Rs 5 b - is sitting on huge amounts of dead capital (just 90% of urban holdings is worth Rs 300b) in the form of this govt-owned land with buildings https://t.co/Mj3Nvnt7xE
— Imran Khan (@ImranKhanPTI) September 10, 2018
The PTI chief tweeted, “I have just got figures of 90% of state-owned land in KP, Punjab & federal areas & rest houses/official residences built on this land. The figures are startling: 34,459 kanals are rural & 17,035 kanals are urban.Just the urban land with buildings is worth over Rs.300 billion!”
“So a country that has to borrow money to pay interest on its loans (burdening our future generations) - & daily interest payment is Rs 5 b - is sitting on huge amounts of dead capital (just 90% of urban holdings is worth Rs 300b) in the form of this govt-owned land with buildings,” he further posted on Twitter.
This comes just days after Imran Khan-led Pakistan government decided to cut funds meant for developmental work in the country by over Rs 250 billion. While the previous budget allocation for developmental works stood at Rs 1,030 billion, the Pakistan government is now working to reduce it to Rs 775 billion.
the Pakistan government has said that the country needs billions of dollars to fulfil its basic needs. Pakistani media had recently reported that Finance Minister Asad Umar had said that the country would need to borrow $9 billion.
“The number that we need to borrow, according to the budget, is $9 billion, but we are trying to address the root cause that compels us to borrow these $9 billion. Of course, we know any measures will take time — maybe even two or three years — to bear fruit,” he had informed the senate , as per a report in Dawn News.
