ISLAMABAD: Finance Minister Senator Muhammad Aurangzeb on Tuesday held an opening meeting with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) mission as part of the negotiations for the fourth review of Pakistan’s $7 billion Extended Fund Facility (EFF) and climate programme.
The IMF mission, led by Iva Petrova, is in Islamabad for the fourth review of Pakistan’s EFF arrangement and the third review of the Resilience and Sustainability Facility (RSF), the Ministry of Finance said in a statement.
During the meeting, Aurangzeb and the IMF delegation held preliminary discussions on key issues related to the ongoing reviews.
The successful review of IMF talks will result in a recommendation to the board for the release of $1.2 billion worth of two tranches under EFF and RSF. In May this year, Pakistan received $1.32 billion from the IMF after its Executive Board completed the third review under the EFF, the central bank had said. Pakistan’s 37-month EFF arrangement was approved on September 25, 2024, and is aimed at building resilience and enabling sustainable growth.
Key priorities include entrenching macroeconomic stability through sound policy implementation, rebuilding foreign exchange reserves, and broadening the tax base. Meanwhile. the IMF review mission reached the federal capital after spending the last week in Karachi, where it discussed monetary policy, inflation and the exchange rate with the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) high-ups, according to media.
In Islamabad, the review mission was briefed on the digitisation of the Asset Declaration Scheme, under which 10,000 federal government employees are bound to declare their assets by October 30, the report added.
The mission was briefed by the Establishment Division and the FBR high-ups on the digitisation of the Asset Declaration Scheme under Section 15-A of the Civil Servant Act 1973.
The Fund was informed that as many as 10,000 federal civil servants would declare their assets under this mandatory scheme. It will be mandatory for civil servants to declare their assets. These digitised asset declarations will be published by December 2026 or January 2027.
Public servants belonging to provincial services are not part of the scheme at this stage.
On the revenue collection front, the FBR high-ups briefed the review mission about the projected revenue collection for the July-September period of the current fiscal year.
It was argued that the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz led to a fuel price hike and slowdown in economic activities in Pakistan, impacting sales tax and income tax. According to the FBR’s rough estimates, the ongoing war has caused revenue losses of Rs144 billion.
However, the FBR high-ups claimed that they would achieve the first quarter’s revenue collection target of Rs3.053 trillion by the end of September 30.
Tax collection might touch Rs1,330 billion against the desired target of Rs1,343 billion, but this figure will help the tax machinery to touch the July-September target of Rs3.053 trillion by the end of the ongoing month, the report stated, citing sources. –Agencies
