Islamabad :
Pakistan has called on the United States to help revive the IMF loan program, as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has not yet agreed to a staff-level agreement, despite stringent measures taken by the government.
Yesterday, the government’s economic team met with US Ambassador to Pakistan Donald Bloom and asked him for help in this regard, official sources told The Express Tribune. The ministry of finance has not yet commented on the issue.
The Pakistani delegation that met with the US Ambassador included Federal Minister for Finance Muftah Ismail and Minister of State for Finance Ayesha Ghous Pasha. In the meeting, Pakistani officials told the US ambassador that the government has taken steps equal to 2.2% of its GDP for financial stability even in these difficult times.
There have been three rounds so far between Pakistan and the IMF to revive the loan program, two of which have been with the current government and several online contacts, but sources say the IMF As of Thursday evening, it had not even shared a draft Memorandum of Understanding (MEFP) with Pakistan regarding its economic and fiscal policies, which is the basis for staff-level negotiations, without which the IMF would not sign any agreement.
The IMF program with Pakistan has been suspended since last March because the previous government had not implemented the agreement reached with the international body. His stance on payments to PEZs comes after the World Bank said last year that payments made to Chinese IPPs should be extended to concessions to non-C-pack projects.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) had yesterday issued a statement quoting its resident representative, Esther Perez, denouncing the allegations as “untrue” and said that the IMF did not insist on holding any talks with Pakistan on the C-Pac IPPA agreements. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) says it supports the government’s multifaceted efforts to revive the energy sector, whose stakeholders include the government, power producers and power consumers. A comprehensive statement was issued.
The Express Tribune had asked him if it was true that the IMF intended that Pakistan should negotiate with the Chinese IPPs and demand concessions from them as it had done in 1994 and 2002 on its dues. In its detailed response last week, the IMF did not deny that it was asking Pakistan to do so.
The IMF said that the government of Pakistan should also realize that it has very limited financial resources to pay its dues. At present, Chinese power companies owe Rs 300 billion to Pakistan and the IMF. These payments are being monitored. At present, there are 11 Chinese power companies in Pakistan who have invested 10. 10.2 billion here. The power generation capacity of these power companies is 5,320 MW. Are closed due to non-matching.
A senior Pakistani negotiator says the government is doing everything possible to revive the IMF program and has made some unpopular decisions in this regard, but the expectations of the international body have not yet been met. The IMF will be ready to negotiate at the staff level after taking steps to increase petrol prices and increase electricity tariffs, but the IMF is now insisting on withdrawing tax concessions not only to the salaried class. He also said that 125 billion additional revenue should be collected from the salaried class. The government of Pakistan is now working on a new proposal under which the relief of Rs. 47 billion given to the salaried class will be withdrawn and 18 billion Billion rupees additional revenue will be collected.
Meanwhile, talking to media after the Senate Finance Committee meeting yesterday, Minister of State for Finance Dr Ayesha Ghous Pasha said that issues with the IMF were being resolved on the new budget and hoped that an agreement with it to revive the loan program would be reached soon. will be done. Meanwhile, the government has decided in principle to withdraw the tax relief provided to the salaried class in its proposed federal budget for 23-2022. According to the report, in the recently presented budget, the government The rate of relief was huge and the maximum tax rate was reduced from 35% to 32.5%.
In addition, the number of tax slabs in the proposed budget was reduced from 12 to 7. According to official sources, the revised tax slabs and other proposals have been submitted to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the official said. Talks at the technical level in the next few days He said that he would try to save the salaried class from falling into the lower slabs. The representative of the fund in Islamabad also confirmed that he was in talks with the authorities. Asked for further clarification on some of the revenues and expenditures, Esther Perez Ruiz, the IMF’s resident representative, said in response to a written question from Dawn News: “We saw last Friday the budget in the National Assembly. He said that according to the preliminary estimates of the IMF, additional measures would be required to strengthen the budget and bring it in line with the objectives of the key program. I am ready to continue to support the authorities’ efforts in implementing policies to promote macroeconomic stability in general.
