In only one month, Shehbaz Sharif’s coalition Federal government borrowed new money, which amounted to more than Rs1,700bn, or approximately Rs 56bn daily.
According to sources, the Punjab federal government is taking loans worth 56 billion rupees daily. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s coalition Federal Government has recorded daily debt increases. Journalist Shehbaz Rana revealed that during the last month, the federal government borrowed 56 billion rupees daily (Shehbaz et al., 2021).
Shehbaz Sharif’s coalition government took out new loans exceeding 1,700 billion in just one month, averaging 56 billion rupees daily. However, many question why they would borrow such a vast amount and where all this money goes. Nevertheless, a report indicates that the country’s debt jumped to over 3,000 billion rupees within three months due to the federal government’s fast borrowing.
The federal government’s debt increased by 113% in three months compared to the previous three months under caretaker governments. The documents from State Bank show that from March to May 2024 alone. The federal government’s borrowing rose by Rupees 3,011 billion. In contrast, in the last three months of the caretaker governments’ term up to November 2023, it increased by Rupees1416 bn. Accordingly, these papers demonstrate this increase in FGs’ public debts between December 2017 and February 2018, with FG’s debts as of May 2018 being Rs67 trillion, eight hundred and sixteen trillion.
Depicting the documents, Federal Government Debt was equal to Rs64806bn as of February 2024. While this figure had been Rs63390bn since November 2023. The same can be said about Pakistan’s external debt figures. As the briefing to the Senate’s Standing Committee on Economic Affairs explained. Pakistan’s external debt has surpassed $130 billion (Economic Affairs Division officials informed. The Senate committee that Pakistan’s foreign debt stood at over $130 billion, including private sector borrowing).
The secretary of the Economic Affairs Division said they have 298 ongoing projects, comprising 146 multilateral and 152 bilateral projects. According to this brief, the Ministry of Finance handles IMF commercial domestic loans and bond certificates. Short-term and external development assistance is managed by EAD, with the finance ministry and central bank. And EAD as part of a debt management process (Fasihuddin et al., 2019).
