KARACHI: On Friday, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar addressed the media after International Monetary Funds issued the statement about negations with Pakistan for the revival of the 9th review. Ishaq Dar said that the government and the economic team were working hard on the agreement, and had a constructive discussion with the global money lender.
Finance Minister Ishaq Dar said that the last round of talks with the IMF had ended and the government had received the Memorandum of Economic and Financial Policy (MEFP) this morning. He briefed that there would be a virtual meeting on Monday to take things forward.
Decisions taken after negotiations with IMF
The government will impose taxes worth 170 billion rupees. Pakistan has to complete the target of 170 billion rupees during the current financial year. A mini budget will be introduced to levy new taxes. Under the agreement, loans will be increased by 70 per cent. The incumbent government will continue the agreements made with the IMF.
The finance minister pointed out that the country needed to reduce electricity and gas losses. He also briefed other key pointers decided during the IMF meeting:
- The budget of the Benazir Income Support Program will be increased from Rs 400 billion.
- Revolving debt has to be cleared in the gas sector.
- The government will make efforts to not directly burden the poor.
- Levy on diesel will be increased.
- Levy on the prices of petroleum products will be increased by five rupees.
- Sales tax is not applied to petroleum products.
IMF Mission Chief Nathan Porter in his concluding remarks said that they welcomed the commitment by the prime minister of Pakistan towards the application of the policies required to safeguard macroeconomic stability. He added that considerable progress had been made in the mission to address external and domestic imbalances.