$3 billion loan from Saudi Arabia successfully rolled over

Federal Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb has said that the $3 billion loan received from Saudi Arabia has been successfully rolled over, which will maintain Pakistan’s foreign exchange reserves at the current level.

Speaking to the media after the meeting of the Senate Standing Committee on Finance on Thursday, the Finance Minister, in response to a question regarding the renewal of the Saudi loan, briefly said that everything is fine. Saudi Arabia had provided a $3 billion loan to Pakistan for three months in April this year so that Pakistan could repay the outstanding loan from the United Arab Emirates.

This loan matured earlier this week, but no official explanation has been given by the Finance Ministry about its renewal for the past one week.

Muhammad Aurangzeb had visited Saudi Arabia last week along with Federal Energy Minister Sardar Owais Leghari, where matters of mutual interest, including financial and economic cooperation between the two countries, were discussed.

This is the first public statement by the Finance Minister regarding the renewal of the Saudi loan after his return to the country. Under the $7 billion IMF program, Saudi Arabia, China and the United Arab Emirates had assured that they would maintain their combined deposits of $12.5 billion with the State Bank of Pakistan until September next year.

Later, the UAE withdrew its financial assistance, after which Saudi Arabia increased its support, bringing the total export to Pakistan to $8 billion.

According to sources, the government is also working on various options to extend the tenor of external loans and phase out energy loans owed to Chinese companies for power plants under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).

Meanwhile, Pakistan has also requested Saudi Arabia to provide oil facilities on deferred payment of $6.7 billion for a period of 15 years to ensure energy security due to tensions in the Middle East.

Meanwhile, the Senate Standing Committee on Finance also took up the issue of over 1,300 vacant posts in the Benazir Income Support Program (BISP), which constitutes about 38 percent of the organization’s sanctioned workforce.

During the meeting, a difference of opinion emerged between Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb and BISP Chairperson Senator Rubina Khalid on the issue.

The Finance Minister took the stand that the matter should be referred to the Standing Committee on Poverty Alleviation, while Rubina Khalid said that since the Finance Ministry had opposed the recruitments, the matter was brought to the Finance Committee.

Rubina Khalid said that there has been no new recruitment in BISP since 2014, which is affecting the organization’s performance.

On the other hand, the Finance Minister said that all the funds of Rs 838 billion of BISP will be distributed digitally in the current financial year, so there is no need for new recruitments, but a policy of natural attrition should be adopted.

The committee decided that the matter will be referred to the Committee on Expenditure Austerity to assess the need for new recruitments.

The meeting was informed that the approved manpower of BISP is about 3,486, out of which about 1,300 posts are currently vacant.