By Ali Imran
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan is in talks with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for an additional sum of $1.4 billion owing to the ongoing coronavirus crisis, Adviser to the Prime Minister on Finance Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh announced on Wednesday.
“This sum [of additional money] is separate from the current programme”, Dr Shaikh said, referring to the ongoing three-year Extended Fund Facility (EFF) worth $6 billion. Pakistan’s economy was growing stronger but the COVID-19 pandemic was expected to dent it considerably, he added.
Remittances were likely to fall, as was the tax collection, and a slowdown in the economic activity throughout the country was imminent, the adviser said in a press conference here in the federal capital.
The government has, however, already announced a Rs1.2-trillion economic and financial relief package to ward off the negative impact of the coronavirus, he said. It has further earmarked Rs200 billion for the labourers who would face extraordinary difficulties in the wake of nationwide lockdowns to contain COVID-19.
“We have to save our own people first. If someone loses their job, they can be given more money than that,” he said.
“We will immediately release tax refunds worth Rs100 billion to the export industry,” Dr Shaikh added, noting that another Rs100 billion was set aside for the small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and agricultural sector.
“There would a reduction in the prices of fertilisers and we will also help subsidise through other ways,” he said, adding that smalls businesses would be granted loans and interest rate on loans cut down.
The government was going to provide financial assistance to almost 12 million people, whereas at the moment, the number is five million, he said. They would be given Rs3,000 a month.
In order to bring down the prices of food and beverages, Dr Shaikh said the Utility Stores Corporation of Pakistan (USC) would be offered Rs50 billion.
He also mentioned that the government intended to buy 8.2 million tonnes’ worth of produce from the farmers, helping the money flow to them.
