KARACHI: Pakistan’s newly appointed finance minister, Shaukat Tarin, received a vote of confidence from some of the country’s most renowned economic experts on Sunday, as the reportedly ‘aggressive’ banker-turned politician faces the daunting challenge of spurring growth and curtailing inflation while meeting conditions attached with a $6 billion International Monetary Fund (IMF) program.
Pakistan’s Prime minister Imran Khan on Friday reshuffled his cabinet, appointing Tarin as Minister for Finance and Revenue. He is the fourth finance chief since the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government came into power in 2018.
Before the formal announcement of Tarin’s appointment as finance minister, PM Khan met with financial experts to introduce his new appointee. Those who attended the meeting hard-talked the new finance minister about his economic vision.
“He is aggressive,” Samiullah Tariq, head of research at Pakistan Kuwait Investment (PKI), who attended the meeting, told Arab News.
“He wants to bring the growth rate to 6-7% to create more jobs,” he added.
The central bank of Pakistan expects that economic growth will be around 3% during the current fiscal year ending in June.
Those who attended the meeting say the new finance minister has targeted 10-12 areas for improvement, including energy, saving and economic growth.
“Out of these targets, if they achieve at least six, that would be a major turnaround,” Tariq said.
“Tarin also hopes to avail opportunities being offered by CPEC. During the meeting, he said China was offering 85 million jobs worldwide and Pakistan can grab at least 10 million,” Tariq said.
Earlier in its tenure, the PTI government has appointed Asad Umar, Dr. Abdul Hafeez Shaikh, and Hammad Azhar as finance ministers.
Tarin, 68, a banker-turned-politician, served as finance minister between 2008 and 2010 in the government of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and played a crucial role in helping the country avert a default by securing a bailout from the IMF.
He has publicly called for the renegotiation of the IMF bailout program, and people familiar with Tarin say they are confident the incumbent finance minister will overcome current challenges.
“From member of advisory council to becoming federal finance minister to becoming member of National Assembly or Senate, Shaukat Tarin can succeed in overcoming numerous challenges on the economic front,” Dr Ikram ul Haq said, a senior economist told Arab News.
“The biggest challenge (for him) is meeting IMF conditions without hampering growth. This is not an easy task. They are no out of the box solutions,” he added.
Dr. Khaqan Najeeb who has served as advisor to the ministry of finance, said that the economic game plan at this stage should preserve, yet deliver beyond the IMF program.
“It should have at its heart a push for moving the economy to a higher growth trajectory,” he said and added: “Sensible economic governance is to keep the long-term perspective in mind, yet know the urgency of solving current issues.”
Pakistan needs to push on with the IMF program to meet its annual refinancing needs of around $25 billion.
One of the key reasons cited for the ouster of Dr Abdul Hafeez last week was his failure to tame inflation, which has increased by 9.1% on a year-on-year basis in March 2021, according to senator Shibli Faraz, then information minister.
Dr. Najeeb emphasized the need to coordinate a government approach to address immediate concerns including easing the supply of food items, dealing with issues of power sector efficiency, raising tax compliance and broadening the taxpayer base.
But experts also added that until fiscal consolidation is achieved and the debt trap is overcome, higher growth paths cannot follow.
For this, long-delayed and much-needed fundamental structural reforms are needed in tax administration, a rational tax policy and drastic cuts in wasteful and unproductive expenditures.