Islamabad – Federal government has agreed to bring a number of changes in the budget for fiscal year 2024 in an effort to secure a bailout package from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Winding up general discussion on the budget for the year 2023-24.at the National Assembly on Saturday, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar said that the government has detailed negotiations with the global lending agency to complete the 9th review for resumption of IMF program.
He said that the government would take a number of measures including imposition of Rs215 billion new taxes and reducing Rs85 billion spending for minimizing fiscal deficit.
The review came a day after Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif met IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva on the sidelines of the Global Financing Summit in Paris.
IMF’s Extended Fund Facility (EFF) agreed in 2019 is expiring on June 30.
Under the $6.5 billion facility’s ninth review, negotiated earlier this year, Pakistan has been trying to secure $1.1 billion of funding stalled since November.
Finance Minister said that the government has agreed on Rs215 billion taxes after dialogues with the IMF team to complete the 9th review under the EFF, pending due to the external financing gap. He said that the final taxes of only Rs215 have been agreed and these would not burden the common man,
He said that running expenditure would be reduced by Rs85 billion, which would have no impact on the proposed development budget and raise in salaries and pensions of the government employees.
He assured that once the things with the IMF were settled; all details would be made public on the official website of the Ministry of Finance.
Resultantly, he said the proposed tax collection target of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) had been increased from Rs9.2 trillion to Rs9.415tr, with the provincial share going up from Rs5.276tr to Rs5.390tr, the federal government total expenditure estimate from Rs14.460tr to Rs14.480tr and pension estimate from Rs761 billion to Rs801bn.
He said the subsidy estimate would be at Rs1.064tr and grants at Rs1.405tr, adding as a result of all these measures, the overall budget deficit would come down with a cushion of Rs300bn [Rs215 billion taxes and Rs85 billion reduction in running expenditures].
