The gulf between Pakistan and the IMF began to widen, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar’s claims were also reduced, IMF’s demand for Do More increased.
Negotiations for the 9th review between Pakistan and the IMF have not yet officially started. The talks, which started on October 26, 2022, were supposed to be held on November 3, then November 11, then November 15, then November 21, now do not seem to be happening even on November 29 and are still deadlocked, according to sources in the IMF Ministry of Finance and Not satisfied with the Federal Board of Revenue.
Powerful economic circles of the country told News360 that the IMF is not satisfied with the loud claims of Finance Minister Ishaq Dar and has clearly urged the Finance Ministry and the FBR to implement their demands.
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Finance Minister Ishaq Dar was sworn in as Finance Minister on 26 September 2022 and claimed to reduce the prices of petroleum products and bring the dollar below Rs 200 on 1 October 2022.
He also claimed that he will convince the IMF even by making petrol cheaper and that he knows how to handle the IMF.
According to the sources, the IMF has faced an uncertain situation due to this behavior of the finance minister and its confidence in the Pakistani authorities has risen once again. This confidence was somewhat restored by former Finance Minister Dr. Miftah Ismail.
Now the situation is that the IMF delegation wants implementation of various commitments from Pakistan before the Ninth Review Talks and IMF is not satisfied with the increase in expenditure from the Ministry of Finance and no increase in tax revenue due to the performance of FBR.
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According to the sources, the finance ministry has been asked to further reduce the expenditure and strictly implement the road map to limit subsidies and reduce losses in the energy sector.
FBR has been demanded to increase the revenue further and it has been said that if the inflation rate increases by 30%, the size of the economy i.e. GDP increases by 4%, the tax revenue can easily increase by 30 to 34%, so the Federal Board of Revenue What is the performance of
The IMF has asked the Federal Board of Revenue to make efforts to raise Rs 600 billion to increase tax revenue so that the share of taxes in the economy, i.e. the tax-to-GDP ratio, increases from 8.5 percent to 10.5 percent or to reach 11 percent.
Economists have told News 360 that the ninth review meeting with the IMF could lead to risks for the economy and if these talks are delayed further, the next installment of the IMF loan for Pakistan will be delayed. will suffer and external payment pressure for Pakistan will increase to dangerous levels.