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ISLAMABAD: Cash-starved Pakistan has made a number of changes to its budget for the 2023-24 fiscal year in a bid to revive an International Monetary Fund program and secure a stalled $1.2 billion tranche, the country’s finance minister, Ishaq DarSaturday.
Addressing the National Assembly, the minister said that Pakistan and the IMF had conducted detailed negotiations as a last-ditch effort to complete the pending ninth review. Dar said it was decided between Pakistan and the IMF a “final push” to trigger the review, which ends on June 30, after which detailed negotiations were held with an IMF delegation in the past three days to complete the ninth cycle. review.
For the fiscal year starting next month, Dar said, the federal government will collect another 215 billion Pakistani rupees ($768 million) in new taxes and cut 85 billion rupees (about $304 million) in spending, in addition to a number of other measures. To reduce the fiscal deficit: The finance minister said that a new tax proposal of 215 billion rupees came as a result of the talks.
He said the government had completed all the previous formalities and achieved compliance with the IMF request, but the external financing gap had complicated Pakistan.
He said the spending cut of 85 billion rupees would also be achieved without any cuts in the federal development budget or cuts in salary and pension increases for government employees.
Providing updated figures for the FY24 budget, Dar said the revenue collection target for the Federal Board of Revenue, the country’s tax regulator, had been increased to 9,415 billion rupees ($33.6 billion) from 9,200 billion rupees ($32.84 billion).
The International Monetary Fund last week raised several issues related to Pakistan’s budget for fiscal year 2024, saying that some of the proposed measures are inconsistent with the terms of the IMF programme. Continue to work with the international lender to reach an “amicable solution”.
With reserves at critical levels for the past several months, Pakistan is in dire need of a bailout from the International Monetary Fund, without which it could default.
Pakistan was expected to receive about $1.2 billion, as part of the $6.7 billion bailout programme, from the lender bank in October last year. But this step has not been achieved in the past eight months as the International Monetary Fund says that Pakistan has not been able to meet important basic requirements.
Addressing the National Assembly, the minister said that Pakistan and the IMF had conducted detailed negotiations as a last-ditch effort to complete the pending ninth review. Dar said it was decided between Pakistan and the IMF a “final push” to trigger the review, which ends on June 30, after which detailed negotiations were held with an IMF delegation in the past three days to complete the ninth cycle. review.
For the fiscal year starting next month, Dar said, the federal government will collect another 215 billion Pakistani rupees ($768 million) in new taxes and cut 85 billion rupees (about $304 million) in spending, in addition to a number of other measures. To reduce the fiscal deficit: The finance minister said that a new tax proposal of 215 billion rupees came as a result of the talks.
He said the government had completed all the previous formalities and achieved compliance with the IMF request, but the external financing gap had complicated Pakistan.
He said the spending cut of 85 billion rupees would also be achieved without any cuts in the federal development budget or cuts in salary and pension increases for government employees.
Providing updated figures for the FY24 budget, Dar said the revenue collection target for the Federal Board of Revenue, the country’s tax regulator, had been increased to 9,415 billion rupees ($33.6 billion) from 9,200 billion rupees ($32.84 billion).
The International Monetary Fund last week raised several issues related to Pakistan’s budget for fiscal year 2024, saying that some of the proposed measures are inconsistent with the terms of the IMF programme. Continue to work with the international lender to reach an “amicable solution”.
With reserves at critical levels for the past several months, Pakistan is in dire need of a bailout from the International Monetary Fund, without which it could default.
Pakistan was expected to receive about $1.2 billion, as part of the $6.7 billion bailout programme, from the lender bank in October last year. But this step has not been achieved in the past eight months as the International Monetary Fund says that Pakistan has not been able to meet important basic requirements.
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