Pak IMF policy talks, likely to take tough decisions

Policy talks between Pakistan and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) are likely to lead to difficult decisions.

Sources have said that Pakistan has to answer tough questions in the policy talks with the IMF.

Pakistan will have to bring its foreign exchange reserves up to 16 billion 20 million dollars by June 30, Pakistan will have to tell where this money will come from.

There will be policy discussions on budget deficit, external financing, budget framework and key issues, Pakistan must immediately remove import restrictions.

4 billion dollars will have to be provided immediately to open LCs, measures will be discussed to reduce the expenses of more than 600 billion rupees to reduce the budget deficit.

More than 50% cut on the development budget while preparations are being made to spend more than 400 billion rupees instead of 727 development budget.

Substantial reduction in non-developmental expenditure will also be brought, there will also be talks on stopping funding of unnecessary projects.

During the negotiations with the IMF, there will be a discussion on the significant reduction in the release of subsidies from the budget for the current financial year, the electricity and gas rates will have to be increased by about 50 percent to reduce the subsidy.

Phase-by-step monitoring of all development projects will be made public on the website, privatization programs will be activated, and the plan to activate or sell state-owned enterprises will be determined.

During the negotiations, legislation will be discussed to make the process of accountability effective and transparent, and a new policy for taking and returning loans from foreign countries will be decided.

Pakistan’s IMF will hold talks on creating an infrastructure for repayment of revolving credit, including a policy to ensure electricity supply and consumption-based billing.

Sources in the Ministry of Finance have also informed that a new procedure for taking and repaying loans from banks in rupees will be decided.