Islamabad: The federal government has decided to increase the cost of electricity by accepting another condition of the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
According to the sources, there were talks between Pakistan and the IMF on the energy sector, in which the government also gave the revised circular debt management plan to the IMF.
According to the decision, the price of electricity will be increased by 3 rupees per unit next month and will be increased by 70 paisa per unit in May, while electricity will be expensive by 6 rupees per unit till the first month of the new financial year.
The IMF has also called for scrapping the subsidy proposal up to 300 units and said that only up to 100 units should be provided to poor consumers. 200 billion rupees revenue will be obtained by increasing the price of electricity.
The IMF has also demanded to cancel the revolving debt of 4100 billion rupees, 952 billion rupees will be adjusted in the revolving debt while the subsidy of 675 billion rupees to the consumers will also end.
The revolving debt in the electricity sector is 2500 billion rupees, while the revolving debt of the gas sector has reached 1600 billion.
It should be noted that the Ministry of Finance had suggested an increase of 7 to 10 rupees per unit.
The second round of technical-level talks between Pakistan and the IMF is underway in Islamabad, in which the Federal Board of Revenue’s mini-budget, enforcement and management measures are being reviewed. Proposals to eliminate unnecessary tax exemptions and increase the withholding tax rate for non-filers are also under consideration.
