Pakistan unable to impress IMF on revenue plan
Inability to come to an agreement between Pakistan and the IMF caused the arrival of an IMF delegation to Pakistan for the completion of the 9th review and the subsequent approval of a $1.2 billion loan tranche to be significantly delayed.
Details about the meeting between Pakistani and IMF officials’ last meeting were revealed on Friday during Express News talk show The Review, where host Shahbaz Rana said that the latter’s demand for compliance with actions that weren’t even due during the ninth review period made the meeting less successful.
According to Rana, the IMF was dissatisfied with Pakistan’s shared revenue and spending plans and requested more details.
In addition, he added, the IMF questioned Pakistan’s assertion that it could still raise Rs800 billion through the petroleum levy in the current fiscal year, even though the collection in the first quarter was only Rs47 billion, in contrast to the budget objective of Rs855 billion.
According to Rana, the IMF has requested information from the government regarding the spending and revenue projections for each of the four provinces. It has also requested information regarding subsidies and development initiatives. Rana meanwhile emphasised that Pakistan’s economic issues have gotten worse as a result of declining foreign exchange reserves beginning to hurt defence imports. He claimed that exports were down 18% and that the reserves had fallen to $7.5 billion.
Finance Minister Ishaq Dar announced on Friday that Pakistan will get $3 billion in foreign financing from a friendly nation in two weeks.
Dar added that releasing a tranche despite the fact that all goals for the IMF’s ninth review have been met would be pointless.
Pakistan unable to impress IMF on revenue plan
Dar stated that the IMF had been asked to release the tranche but added that the IMF was acting abnormally by not doing so despite the requirements being met. He did, however, add that “we will make alternate arrangements” if the IMF funding did not arrive.
