Pak govt admits to 'hiccups' in IMF programme implementation

Islamabad, Dec 3 (PTI) Pakistan government has admitted that there are "hiccups" in implementing the International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme, but asserted its commitment to completing the USD 7 billion package.
     Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb made the statement in a briefing to the National Assembly Standing Committee on Finance on Monday, amid opposition's demand to also disclose the assets of the military and the judiciary – which is currently limited to only civil servants – as part of the IMF condition, The Express Tribune reported on Tuesday.
     "There are going to be hiccups but our administration is clear that we are going through it and also want to take along the coalition partners," the finance minister told the committee on the status of the IMF deal before seeking to shut down the doors to the media.
     The finance ministry also revealed to the committee that it failed to meet an IMF condition on debt maturity, further lengthening the queue of the departments that have so far failed to meet some of the global lender's conditions.
     The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) and the provinces were already falling behind the IMF deadlines, which led to a sudden visit by the IMF staff to Pakistan.
     Before the media left the room, the discussion was enough to confirm that there were troubles in the implementation of the USD 7 billion programme that the IMF had approved in September.
     The Sindh government has issues in the implementation of the National Fiscal Pact, according to the finance ministry sources.
     Aurangzeb's statement came days after the IMF made an unscheduled visit to Pakistan after reports that some of the programme targets went off the mark, soon after its approval by the executive board.
     In his opening statement, the finance minister said during his last visit to Washington, people acknowledged Pakistan's performance in the past two years but added that "strong implementation" was required to stay on the course.
     Finance Secretary Imdadullah Bosal gave a briefing to the committee on the implementation status of the conditions agreed under the IMF, which revealed that even the finance ministry failed to meet the condition.
     The finance ministry "missed" the indicative target of increasing the weighted average time-to-maturity condition of the local currency domestic debt to two years and eight months by end September, Bosal disclosed.
     The secretary further disclosed that the condition to spend Rs 685 billion on health and education during the first quarter was also "missed".
     Furthermore, the federal and provincial governments had failed to meet the condition despite the finance minister describing "child stunting and learning poverty as existential issues".
     The finance secretary also told the standing committee that the FBR "missed" its three-month target of Rs 2.652 trillion by a margin of Rs 89 billion. The shortfall had now widened to a whopping Rs 341 billion by end of November, according to the FBR's statistics.
     The IMF had also set a condition to discontinue gas supplies to industries by end-January 2025. The finance secretary told the committee that "the Petroleum Division has expressed concerns on the structural benchmark to the IMF during their recent visit; however, the IMF has not agreed so far".
     The secretary stated that the IMF had also set a condition to amend the Civil Servants Act to ensure that the assets declarations of high-level public officials, including assets of beneficially owned by the member of their family, were digitally filed and publicly accessible. The deadline will end in February.
     "I have recommended that the assets of the army and the judiciary should also be disclosed as part of the IMF condition," said Omar Ayub Khan, the opposition leader, who is also a member of the standing committee.
     Khan said he asked the finance ministry to share the details of the spending on the Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC) and the consequent foreign investment that it had brought to Pakistan since its inception. He said that the finance ministry could not share any details.
     The opposition leader in the National Assembly further said it emerged from the in-camera meeting that the government did not have a plan to bridge the yawning tax shortfall, which increased to Rs 341 billion in just five months.
     Khan said the IMF condition to increase agriculture income tax rates by three times was also not met, according to The Express Tribune report.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)