Former FinMin Mahat calls for ramping up investment in productive sector

Member of the House of Representatives (HoR) and former finance minister Dr Prakash Sharan Mahat has stressed the need for increasing financial investment in the productive sector.

Taking part in the deliberations on the annual estimates of revenues and expenditures for the fiscal year 2024-25 in the lower house of the Federal Parliament on Sunday, Dr Mahat said the nation’s economic growth would be impeded in case of failure to increase investment in the productive sector.

“Production and employment cannot be increased and neither does the revenue for failing to spend in the productive sectors by taking loans. The consequence of this is that the debt burden on the state increases, leading to a situation wherein more loans have to be taken for paying the loans,” he said.

“The revenue has not been generated as the financial resources are not spent in the productive sector and it has also not created jobs. The budget allocations for the next fiscal year have not been prioritized and it has not been apportioned on the basis of need,” he said.

Saying the budget allocation to the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Supplies is inadequate, he criticized the budget for the budgetary allocations have been made in such a way that they will be spent in unproductive sectors than in the productive ones.

Lawmaker Mahat said the cooperative depositors were facing problems in recent days due to cooperative frauds and demanded stern legal action against individuals who spent the cooperative’s savings in contravention of the cooperative’s laws.