ISLAMABAD: International Monetary Fund’s (IMF’s) senior management and the Board of Directors can expedite or delay the processing of a bailout package, well-informed sources told Business Recorder.
There are no hard and fast rules as to the processing time, sources further maintained, but if the borrowing country resists agreeing to standard conditionalities without offering alternates acceptable to the Fund then these negotiations can become protracted and delay the processing of the package.
A delegation of International Monetary Fund (IMF) arrived here Thursday on a week long visit for Article IV consultations.
Pakistan’s last Article IV consultations concluded on April 5, 2017 and the report was released in June 2017 and next one was due in March 2018 but it was postponed for the reasons best known to the then economic managers, however, budget engagements were cited as a reason by the previous government.
Sources in the Finance Ministry said that the IMF team met with Finance Minister Asad Umer where possibilities of the IMF Programme were discussed.
Umer has, earlier, stated on various occasions that the IMF Program is one of the options to meet the challenges on external account deficit.
The Ministry of Finance has sent letters to all the concerned ministries and divisions including Ministry of Energy, Ministry of Commerce and Revenue Division and sought information to be shared with the Mission during the weeklong parleys.
ISLAMABAD: The government’s move for implementation of revised tax slabs for individuals with retrospective effect from July 1, 2018 was rejected by the Senate Standing Committee of Finance with a majority vote, warning that such an effort will invite litigation.
The reasons Finance Minister Asad umer announced a supplementary budget for the current year, according to his speech in the National Assembly, were the previous Governments. Unrealisitic Budget and the inevitable corrective measures require to avoid a severe crisis.
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