Asif Shahzad
ISLAMABAD (Reuters) – Pakistan has made changes to its budget for the fiscal year starting July 1, including stipulations, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar said on Saturday. The latest austerity measures
“Pakistan and the IMF have engaged in detailed negotiations over the past three days as a last-ditch effort to complete the pending review,” he told parliament.
For the fiscal year starting next month, Pakistan will raise a further 60 billion rupees ($ he said, million) new taxes and spending cuts of 60 billion rupees, and a host of other measures to narrow the fiscal deficit.
This will revise Pakistan’s tax target to 9.415 Trillion Rupees ($33 billion) and set the total expenditure as .480 Trillion Dal said Rs (billions of dollars). “These changes will make our fiscal deficit much better off,” he said.
“We’ve made sure the new tax doesn’t affect the poor,” he claimed, adding that he would raise the gas tax from 30 Rs to 60 Rs and will be capped at new
He also announced the removal of all import restrictions imposed in December to cut the current account deficit, which has been one of the main concerns issued by the IMF
for Funding for cash handouts for the poor has also been revised from 415 Rs. , Dahl said.
The review comes a day after Prime Minister Shebaz Sharif met IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva on the sidelines of the global conference. Paris Financing Summit.
Less than a week until the expiry of the extended funding arrangement agreed by the IMF at 752 in June 752 Timing .
Under the ninth review of the $6.5 billion loan negotiated earlier this year, Pakistan has been trying to secure $1.1 billion in funding has stalled since.
With the central bank’s foreign exchange reserves barely enough to cover a month of controlled imports, Pakistan is facing a severe balance of payments crisis, analysts say, if the IMF Without the organization’s funds to back it up, Pakistan could be in debt default. Did not materialize.
IMF money is critical to unlocking other bilateral and multilateral financing for the heavily indebted South Asian economy.
“God willing, I hope we can reach a deal with the IMF,” Dahl said.
($1=50. Pakistan Rupee)
