THE ongoing unscheduled visit of the IMF mission was termed as exploratory in nature but reports appearing in media reflect the overall mood and its possible implications for people of Pakistan. These reports suggest the mission wants a mini-budget including a sharp increase in the so-called petroleum levy, disconnection of gas supply to inefficient captive power plants to utilize surplus capacity in the national grid and quarterly review of the programme.
The Government took a number of unpopular decisions in order to keep the IMF programme intact but there are some slippages in targets due to various factors. While giving an overview of its performance in the first quarter, the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) told the mission that the three-month shortfall of Rs. 90 billion was because the macroeconomic assumptions went off the mark. The reasons for missing the monthly targets were related to slow growth in imports, slowing down of inflation rate, while some of the policy measures also did not respond as expected. Whatever factors and reasons are, there is absolutely no justification to resort to solutions that could increase the cost of doing business and add to the miseries of the people. Prices of petroleum products are already on the higher side and further hike in the rate of PL will surely have inflationary impact. Similarly, traders earn handsomely but are not ready to pay taxes and it would be unjust to shift the burden to the common man.
