Pakistan may face economic loses of Rs 1.3 trillion due to Coronavirus
The preliminary assessment of losses done by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) stood at USD 5 billion but Pakistan's top officials argued that these estimates were less than the expected actual losses.
Published: 23rd March 2020 11:39 PM | Last Updated: 23rd March 2020 11:39 PM | A+A A-
A motorcyclist wears a protective face mask while drives through a market closed due to restrictions put in place over the spread of the coronavirus in Rawalpindi, Pakistan. (Photo | AP)
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan's initial economic losses in various sectors have been estimated at Rs 1.3 trillion in the wake of coronavirus outbreak in the country.
These losses will be incurred on account of the drop in the GDP growth because of reduction in the services sector, including airline business and others, Pakistan's Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) loss, the massive decline in imports, exports, reduction in remittances, and disruption in food supplies, The News International reported.
The preliminary assessment of losses done by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) stood at USD 5 billion but Pakistan's top officials argued that these estimates were less than the expected actual losses.
The Planning Commission of Pakistan estimated that the size of the country's GDP stood at Rs 44 trillion and one-fourth stood at Rs 11 trillion, so the disruption caused by Coronavirus was expected to cause at least 10 percent losses in the last quarter (April-June) that would stand at Rs 1.1 trillion at least.
The FBR has already been facing massive revenue shortfall before the virus outbreak despite slashing down the FBR's annual target from Rs 5.555 trillion to Rs 5.238 trillion.
Earlier, the FBR had also requested the International Monetary Fund for allowing a further reduction in its predicted target from Rs 5.238 trillion to Rs 4.8 trillion.
Now the FBR is assessing further reduction in achieving the target by Rs380 billion, so it is estimating collection of just Rs 4.4 trillion till June 2020.
Federal secretary commerce Sardar Ahmad Nawaz Sukhera said that the exports might face loss in the range of USD 2 to USD 4 Billion as export orders had got canceled.
An interesting situation surfaced as the Ministry of Commerce gave estimates of disruption of both imports and exports but the representative of Maritime Ministry claimed that there was no disruption in the shipping industry so far. Pakistan has so far reported 804 confirmed cases of the deadly virus and six deaths.
