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Shehbaz constitutes austerity monitoring committee

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Sunday formally constituted a committee to monitor the implementation of ‘ambitious’ austerity measures announced a few days ago. A notification regarding the constitution of the committee was issued at the directive of the prime minister. The seven-member committee included Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, Education Minister Rana Tanveer Hussain, IT and Telecommunication Minis­ter Syed Aminul Haque, Law and Justice Minister Azam Nazeer Tarrar, National Food Security and Research Minister Tariq Bashir Cheema, PM’s advisor on Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan Affairs Qamar Zaman Kaira and Minister of State for Power Hashim Notezai, said a press release issued by the PM Office Media Wing on Sunday. The committee would oversee the implementation of decisions taken during the federal cabinet meeting on Feb 22. The principal accounting officer of each ministry, division and department would submit recommendations to implement the measure before the committee by Feb 27. Ministries asked to share proposals for ‘cost-cutting’ today Empty coffers Amid a bleak financial situation, the PM announc­­ed a slew of austerity measures, which he claimed would result in an annual saving of Rs200 billion. The announcement came as the government finalised measures need­­ed to be implemented as a prerequisite for reaching a deal with the International Monetary Fund. Pakistan is hoping to sign a staff-level agreement this week which will pave the way for a much-awaited tranche of over $1bn. The government expects the deal to open credit flows from other bilateral and multilateral lenders. The economy is in dire need of monetary injection as the country was battling its worst economic crisis. The foreign exchange reserves have dropped to around $3bn, barely enough to cover three weeks of imports. Last week, the National Assembly passed the ‘IMF-dictated’ Finance (Supplementary) Bill, 2023, imposing an additional Rs170bn in taxes. According to the measures, all federal cabinet members, including advisers and special assistants to the PM would forgo salaries and other privileges. They will pay their utility bills and return all luxury vehicles which will be auctioned. Government employees would not be allotted more than one plot, and only one dish would be served at government events. Only one security vehicle would be provided to each cabinet member. The minister and government officers will travel the economy for domestic and foreign trips without support staff. No minister would stay in five-star hotels during foreign visits. For meetings, teleconferencing would be prioritised to cut travel expenses. All divisions, departments, subsidiaries and other entities under the federal government will slash their expenditure by 15 per cent while the purchase of luxury items, including vehicles, has been banned till June 2024. No administrative unit or division would be created for the next two years. As part of the measures, government offices have been asked to open at 7:30am during summer. Another committee This is the second committee formed by the prime minister in over a month, tasked with cutting the government’s expenditures through austerity measures. On Jan 20, a 15-member committee, headed by former bureaucrat Nasir Mahmood Khosa, was formed to present proposals on cost-cutting within 15 days. However, the committee could never even meet once and became defunct. Published in Dawn, February 27th, 2023
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