'Cutting' Chai? Pakistan Minister Asks Citizens To Drink Less Tea To Reduce Import Bill
Crisis hit Pakistan's federal minister for planning, Ahsan Iqbal, has urged citizens to cut down the consumption of tea to help reduce the import bill. He said Pakistan is one of the biggest importers of tea in the world.
With the country neck-deep in debt, cash-strapped Pakistan¡¯s minister has come forward with a request to its citizens. He has urged Pakistani citizens to cut down the consumption of tea to help reduce the import bill eating into the country's depleting foreign exchange reserves.
The appeal from Federal Minister for Planning Ahsan Iqbal came after it emerged that Pakistan consumed tea worth Rs 8,388 crore(USD 400 million) in the fiscal year 2021-22, The News International newspaper reported.
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He said that Pakistan, one of the biggest importers of tea in the world, has to borrow money to import it.
¡°I appeal to the nation to cut down the consumption of tea by 1-2 cups because we import tea on loan," Iqbal said while speaking to reporters here on Tuesday, as per PTI.
The federal budget document for the outgoing fiscal year showed that Pakistan imported Rs 1,300 crore(USD 60 million) worth of more tea than the last fiscal year.
In the fiscal year 2020-21, Rs 7,082 crore (USD 340 million) was spent on the import of tea, the News Network International news agency reported.
Minister Iqbal's appeal to cut down the consumption of tea by one to two cups did not go down well with people as they started criticising him on Twitter.
The planning minister reportedly also said that the traders' community has also been asked to close markets by 8:30 PM to conserve energy.
Iqbal said this will help the country cut the import bill of petroleum products, as per the PTI report.
Earlier in February this year, the Pakistan government had reportedly planned to borrow gold from people. This was aimed to increase Pakistan's foreign exchange reserves which were continuously on a downfall despite already taking over USD 5 billion as loans from bilateral and multilateral creditors in the past months, according to a media report in PTI.
Recently, Finance Minister Miftah Ismail had reportedly warned that Pakistan's economy could be in a similar position as that of Sri Lanka if tough decisions were not taken.
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Also Read: Imran Khan Says 'I Didn't Join Politics To Know The Prices Of Tomato & Potato'
How Twitterati Reacted To The 'Cutting' Chai Request
Pakistan minister announced to drink less tea - (reducing 2-3 cups) so I hope you are following it ?
¡ª Anil Bhatt (@AnilBhatt2511) June 16, 2022
I feel next announcement would be not using vehicles and use horses , camel ,or donkeys to go from home to office or to travel
This is shameful!!!! We always make the news for wrong reasons. Amazing how happy Western media is when Pakistan is in the gutter!!! When IK was PM, we were hardly mattered.https://t.co/Fp70Lm6nCt
¡ª Ahmad Khwaja (@ahmad_khwaja) June 15, 2022
Pakistanis urged to drink less tea to help the economy. pic.twitter.com/DE5Nw16kyg
The previous government was telling us to eat less rotis and put less sugar in tea. This government is telling us to drink less tea. I feel sorry for people of Pakistan. Meanwhile dollar is increasing every day. All of these politicians are making sure Pakistanis do not survive
¡ª Irfan (@Irfan_2022_) June 14, 2022
@betterpakistan
¡ª Salman E Ahmed (@salman_ejaz) June 15, 2022
Tea import bill $500 if we drink 2 less cups = $100m/yr saving=$273200/d=25paisa/person/day
Bought fighter jet last year costing $3.5Bn=$9.58m/d
People can shower with tea twice a day if we stop buying fighter jets to get them rusted https://t.co/iHmITNS1ro
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Also Read: Amid Crisis, Pakistan Govt Planning To Borrow People's Gold For Help
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