Minister for Finance Shaukat Tareen has stated that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia will pay $3.6 billion to Pakistan on a deferred payment basis for oil purchases.
An agreement with Saudi Arabia to revive deferred payments for oil imports to Pakistan has been made, whereby $3.6 billion will be given to the government of Pakistan for the purchase of oil over a period of two years.
Pakistan will receive $150 million per month from Saudi Arabia for the purchase of oil. It was also informed that the funds will only be used to buy oil. The Finance Minister said this while talking to the media at the Pakistan Tobacco Company (PTC) factory in Jhelum.
Speaking at the occasion, the Finance Minister explained that “Saudi Arabia will provide $150 million credit facility on monthly basis for the purchase of oil over two years period, which is approximately $3.6 billion. Responding to a question, Finance Minister said, “Saudi Arabia will provide credit facility to Pakistan and it depends on us to buy oil from wherever we want.”
The above development comes almost three years after Saudi Arabia’s previous oil facility which provided Pakistan $3 billion in foreign currency support for year and a loan worth up to $3 billion in deferred oil payments. However, this facility was suspended by the Kingdom after a declared period of time, owing to rising tensions across the geopolitical landscape of the region.
For the ongoing fiscal year, the government of Pakistan is vying for all available plans to overcome its menacing external account problems and the resumption of the Saudi Oil Facility is expected to go a long way to get the desired results in terms of stability and diplomatic ties between the two countries.
