Funds Misappropriation: PTI Government gave interest free $3 billion to 600 businessmen. Interestingly, the claim came against a party which has been had high claims against favoritism in terms of loans. The funds were distributed under the Temporary Economic Refinance Facility.

The revelation came during a meeting of Members of National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Finance. It is one of the most significant scandal with such a huge amount in the country’s entire history. While Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf leader Mr. Imran Khan has been claiming charges of merely a few million dollars against his opponents. Such a huge amount to chosen businessmen may result in a major corruption scandal against his own government.

Interestingly, the $3 billion amount was given to the 600 businessmen as an interest free loan. The information of borrowers is protected under the Banking Companies Ordinance. Thus, not many people know who these 600 people were who took the interest free loan.

The idea was to let the businessmen get support form the government to ensure job continuity of several thousand people. Yet, there wasn’t any assessment or evaluation on how these loans performed. No one knows on how these funds were used or if they were used appropriately?

Apparently, these funds were taken with a maximum interest rate of 1 to 5 percent. So, if someone took $1 billion, they were just supposed to pay $10 million as an interest over the period of financing. Without iota of any doubt, this resulted in a key policy flaw for a country like Pakistan. We create a scenario for our readers. Imagine someone took $1 billion of public money and invested it abroad. Now, if they are able to grab high interest rates such as 20 percent. So, they are taking $200 million of this interest into their kitty. Resultantly, they are saving $190 million every year by using Pakistan’s money. Now multiply it with $3 billion and it is approximately $570 million of loss to the national exchequer.

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More interesting is the fact that Pakistan was trying to get additional support from IMF during the same period that these finds were distributed.

Funds Misappropriation: PTI Government gave interest free $3 billion to 600 businessmen.