Influence of West placed CPEC in cold storage: Noted Pakistan economist

Speaking at a webinar organised by the Pakistan Institute of Labour Education and Research (Piler) on Sunday, Dr Kasier Bengali was quoted as saying by Dawn News that due to the influence from the West the government had placed CPEC in cold storage. 

“Pakistan’s economy is mainly relying on foreign loans, so the economic managers are trying to appease the IMF and other international lenders by not mentioning the CPEC,” he said.

“The budget 2020-21 is a traditional budget, which has no focus on changing economic priorities,” he remarked.

He was quoted as saying Dawn News that many industries in various sectors of Pakistan’s economy were feared to be closed down due to the economic crisis arising after the coronavirus pandemic, which may render millions of employees jobless. 

Bengali said no relief was provided to the working class in the Pakistan government's budget 2020-21.

“In fact the budget 2020-21 is an attempt to extract maximum tax revenue from the pockets of the common people as the government has made the budget on instruction from the IMF,” he remarked.

Bengali hit out at the Pakistan government and said it has shifted the blame on Covid-19 for all ills of the economy.

"Before the pandemic the economy was already on the ventilator,” he said.

The economist said Pakistan’s economy is being run on foreign as well as domestic loans and no step has been provided to reduce the burden of loans.

“All economic targets for the budget 2020-21 are fixed ambitiously as the government had miserably failed to achieve any major targets fixed during the current fiscal year [2019-20],” he said, adding that the Federal Board of Revenue was lagging behind in its tax collection targets.