Ready to fulfill all preconditions, govt tells IMF.

Minister of Finance Ishaq Dar on Tuesday assured the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in virtual dialogues that the government will fulfill all conditions including increase in gas prices and petroleum development levy will be fulfilled.

According to the sources, the economic team participated virtually in the talks with the IMF, and the finance ministry officials briefed the IMF on the new tax measures in the mini-budget.

The IMF has set preconditions including increasing the PDL on petroleum products, ending the electricity subsidy and fixing the exchange rate of dollar according to the market, whereas the inter-bank and open market differences should be eliminated.

The international lender also called for the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) to increase revenue targets and tax net to meet the targets set in the budget.

According to sources, deadlock still persists in the virtual negotiations between the Ministry of Finance and the IMF, and the date of the IMF mission for the ninth review could not be fixed in the negotiations. The negotiations between the officials of the IMF and the Ministry of Finance will also be held on Wednesday.

Sources further said that the IMF wants the approval of its demands before finalizing the date of the mission, and the finance ministry officials have assured to fulfill all preconditions in the talks. The date of the IMF mission is likely to be finalized at the end of the talks.

Earlier, the federal government had sent a letter to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), requesting it to send its team to cash-strapped Pakistan next week to complete the ninth review for the release of next tranche of loan pending since September last.

The government, as per reports, has expressed willingness to implement on the four major conditions of the global lender for the revival of the loan programme as the foreign exchange reserves of the South Asian country continues to deplete, putting country's essential imports at risk and triggering a new wave of inflation.

The four major demands made by the IMF to revive the progrmme, include increase in gas and electricity prices, market-based exchange rate...

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