Shaukat Tarin clarifies authoritative limits of autonomous SBP
Shaukat Tarin rubbished the claims for selling the central bank to the IMF, however, the government is willing to make the national institutions autonomous.
ISLAMABAD: Finance Minister Senator Shaukat Tarin has said that the authoritative powers of the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) will remain with its executive board that will be constituted by the federal government and the central bank will be answerable to the parliament.
Shaukat Tarin, while addressing a press conference after tabling the supplementary finance bill or mini-budget and the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) Amendment Bill 2021, said that the central bank will be answerable to the parliament’s concerned standing committees and the terms have been told to the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
He said that it would be a constitutional violation if the SBP governor will be exempted from accountability.
He clarified that the government will retain powers to appoint SBP governor and constitute the executive board of the central bank. Tarin rubbished the claims for selling the central bank to the IMF, however, the government is willing to make the national institutions autonomous.
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The finance minister reminded that the central bank had been ordered to print currency notes whenever it was decided by the past government. He added that the government is not acquiring any loans from the SBP for the last 2.5 years and the economy is still running smoothly.
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He detailed that the federal government has to pay Rs6,400 billion to the central bank and now the central bank is being brought out of the finance ministry’s jurisdiction.
Shaukat Tarin also clarified that the government will take back its legislation if the central bank was found involved in misusing its administrative autonomy.
Regarding the mini-budget, he said that the Rs343 billion worth of tax exemptions were withdrawn for different sectors but it will not primarily affect the common man as they will bear the financial burden of only Rs2 billion.
