{"id":100794,"date":"2019-02-07T23:36:55","date_gmt":"2019-02-07T18:36:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/vid.app.com.pk\/vid\/?p=100794"},"modified":"2019-02-07T23:36:55","modified_gmt":"2019-02-07T18:36:55","slug":"minister-for-revenue-hammad-azhar-addresses-press-conference","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vid.app.com.pk\/vid\/2019\/02\/minister-for-revenue-hammad-azhar-addresses-press-conference\/","title":{"rendered":"Minister for Revenue Hammad Azhar addresses press conference"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"width: 640px;\" class=\"wp-video\"><video class=\"wp-video-shortcode\" id=\"video-100794-1\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" preload=\"metadata\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"video\/mp4\" src=\"http:\/\/vid.app.com.pk\/vid\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Revenue-Minister-addresses-press-conference.mp4?_=1\" \/><a href=\"http:\/\/vid.app.com.pk\/vid\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Revenue-Minister-addresses-press-conference.mp4\">http:\/\/vid.app.com.pk\/vid\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Revenue-Minister-addresses-press-conference.mp4<\/a><\/video><\/div>\n<p>ISLAMABAD, Feb 07 (APP): Minister for Revenue Hammad Azhar on Thursday sought to set the record straight regarding the economic situation of the country and the progress towards its &#8216;recovery&#8217; during the first six months of the incumbent government.<\/p>\n<p>The minister said that from August to December 2018, the country received foreign direct investment worth $1.72bn.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This is more than double the figure reported in the first five months of the previous government,&#8221; he told reporters at a media conference in Islamabad.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;When it comes to circular debt, the PML-N say they left Pakistan &#8216;happy and prosperous, with rivers of milk flowing and claimed they had had good governance throughout their tenure&#8217;,&#8221; Azhar said in criticism of the rival party&#8217;s claims, adding that in reality, &#8220;the figures more than doubled [in the PML-N&#8217;s tenure]&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;When they came into power, they first cleared the circular debt without conducting any pre-audits \u2014 that&#8217;s a separate scandal,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;But by the time they left the corridors of power, circular debt had crossed Rs1,000 billion.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Azhar said that if the losses incurred by public sector companies are examined, the total annual loss by these companies stood at Rs190bn when the PML-N took the government&#8217;s reigns.<\/p>\n<p>The latest data, from financial year 2016-2017, shows that this figure had crossed Rs453bn, the revenue minister said \u2014 highlighting the sharp increase in public sector losses by the time the PML-N entered its fourth year in power.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Our government took charge of a destroyed economy and I think \u2014 with the exception of a few from PML-N \u2014 that there is near unanimity, even in international institutions, that Pakistan has never experienced a deficit larger than this. However, we took corrective measures to improve the economic situation.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The result is that if you examine the data from July last year, the trade deficit reduced by 5 per cent, whereas in December alone it fell by 18 per cent,&#8221; Azhar said.<\/p>\n<p>He said that when his party came into power, Pakistan&#8217;s imports were growing at a rate of 15 per cent, whereas now imports have witnessed negative growth \u2014 meaning that in absolute terms, and even percentage wise, a decline can be seen.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;When we receive January&#8217;s data, we will have a handsome growth figure when it comes to exports,&#8221; Azhar remarked confidently.<\/p>\n<p>APP\/Zaheer\/Shahzaib<\/p>\n<p>Source: VNS, Islamabad<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>ISLAMABAD, Feb 07 (APP): Minister for Revenue Hammad Azhar on Thursday sought to set the record straight regarding the economic situation of the country and the progress towards its &#8216;recovery&#8217; during the first six months of the incumbent government. The minister said that from August to December 2018, the country received foreign direct investment worth [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":100795,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"video","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-100794","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-video","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-national","8":"post_format-post-format-video"},"video_url":["http:\/\/vid.app.com.pk\/vid\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Revenue-Minister-addresses-press-conference.mp4"],"featured_media_src_url":"https:\/\/vid.app.com.pk\/vid\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/1-153-1024x576.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vid.app.com.pk\/vid\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100794","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vid.app.com.pk\/vid\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vid.app.com.pk\/vid\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vid.app.com.pk\/vid\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vid.app.com.pk\/vid\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=100794"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/vid.app.com.pk\/vid\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100794\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":100797,"href":"https:\/\/vid.app.com.pk\/vid\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100794\/revisions\/100797"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vid.app.com.pk\/vid\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/100795"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vid.app.com.pk\/vid\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=100794"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vid.app.com.pk\/vid\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=100794"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vid.app.com.pk\/vid\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=100794"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}