Cash-strapped Pakistan's caretaker govt to spend PKR 2.3 billion on new vehicles
Amid the worsening economic situation in cash-strapped Pakistan, the country's Punjab caretaker government has released a whopping Pakistani Rupee (Rs) 2.3 billion towards the purchase of new luxury vehicles for its officials, The News International reported. The sanction from the finance department comes at a time when the entire country is struggling to meet the International Monetary Fund's (IMF) demands.
The notification reveals that the assistant commissioner of each tehsil will be provided with a new double cabin Toyota Hilux 4x4 Revo-G M/T. All the additional deputy commissioners (general) of each district will be provided with new Toyota Yaris ATIV 1.3L while additional commissioners of each division will be provided with Toyota Corolla 1.6 Altis CVT.
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The notification further informed that the vehicles that are presently being used by the assistant commissioners shall be allocated to tehsildars.
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While this is being done, the country's external debt servicing obligations are $2.44 billion for the current month - July 2023, including $2.07 billion in non-guaranteed debt owed to China, the report noted. It is also yet to pay off another $1 billion safe deposit to China, so Pakistan and China are currently working on the rollover of around $3 billion bilateral debt within the ongoing month.
Apart from this, the country is also liable to pay $195 million to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for the current month as well as repay China around $363 million in guaranteed bilateral loans, including principal and markup payments, the report noted.
These are some of the dues that are to be cleared off by the country while there is more that needs to be repaid to France, Japan and China. The country also has to pay a penalty of $4 million as commitment fees within the ongoing month of fiscal year 2023-24.
