Shaukat Tarin says shortage of dollars biggest Pakistani issue at the moment

• Shaukat Tarin said letter of credits (LCs) were not opening.
• PTI leader said the inflation rate was 12 per cent in March.
• Shaukat Tarin said he had not witnessed such an inflation in 50 years.

ISLAMABAD: Shaukat Tarin, former federal minister for finance and revenue, on Friday said the biggest problem that Pakistan currently facing was scarcity of dollars.

In a statement, Shaukat Tarin said letter of credits (LCs) were not opening, hence companies were not getting money. “The government will have to give a rescue plan to get out of the ditch,” he said.

He said the coalition government would have to do something to end the dollar deficit. “We can blame flood, due to which imports and exports both reduced,” he maintained.

The Pakistan Tehreek e Insaf (PTI) leader said the inflation rate was 12 per cent in March. He said the government should provide relief in electricity and oil prices to cut inflation.

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He said the PTI government controlled tomato, potato and onion prices. Pakistan was 14 per cent negative in remittances, he added. While, he said, collections were increasing by 30 per cent.

Shaukat Tarin said he had not witnessed such an inflation in 50 years. The poor was being crushed under inflation, he maintained.

On December 12, rejecting any threat of country’s default, PM Shehbaz Sharif had said the Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N)-led coalition government had kept national interest above political interest and saved the country from default.

Addressing a news conference in Islamabad, he had said that the government was strenuously working to rehabilitate the flood affected people which was a big challenge. He was accompanied by Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Marriyum Aurangzeb and Federal Minister for Planning and Development Ahsan Iqbal.

Shehbaz Sharif had said UK newspaper Daily Mail’s unconditional apology was a success of Pakistanis especially those poor children and mothers who were benefiting from the aid money that was targeted.