Publication:
Minimizing information asymmetry with distributed ledger technology and enhancing trust in risk sharing sukuk
Abstract
Pakistan is under pressure to invest in growth intensive infrastructure projects because of population growth and yet at the same time cannot take on more debt. According to a Fitch Ratings report, Pakistan's long-term foreign currency issuer default rating (IDR) is "B-". Pakistan's "B-" rating reflects financial weakness, external financial vulnerabilities, and poor governance indicator scores. Pakistan owes China 15% of its external debt, estimated at about $17.1 billion (6.15% of GDP) due to China-Pakistan Economic Corridor. Pakistan, a country which is already under a debt of $115.7 billion as of 31st December 2020, reached a debt capacity/ceiling of 87.2% of debt to GDP ratio. To foster this debt, the government is faced with the compounding nature of interest-based debt contracts and eventually must maintain growth only to pay that debt. (Bacha and Abdullah 2016). This paper has attempted to provide an alternative to debt financing by exploring risk sharing contracts such as modaraba. However, this risk sharing contract has an inherent nature of excessive agency problems due to lack of transparency and controls which leads to, A mudarib who minimizes the reported profits in order to maximize his benefits. (Bacha 2009). Controls can be enacted in the modaraba contract with the use of smart contracts. It has been shown in this paper that by coding three functions on solidity namely; allowable cost, depreciation and benchmark to industry standards, can enhance trust in the modaraba contract and also open avenues for future research in this field. With the inherent nature of transparency and immutability that distributed ledger technology provides, modified modaraba could lead the way into infrastructure project financing.
Keywords
Debt , Trust , Risk sharing sukuk , Pakistan , Project paper (MSc)
Citation
Sawant, S. (2021). Minimizing information asymmetry with distributed ledger technology and enhancing trust in risk sharing sukuk (Master dissertation). INCEIF, Kuala Lumpur. Retrieved from https://ikr.inceif.org/handle/INCEIF/3996
Publisher
INCEIF
Available in PDF format. Kindly email to kmc@inceif.edu.my to access the item