IMF unsatisfied with budget

Islamabad: In the meeting of the Senate Standing Committee on Finance, the top officials of the Ministry of Finance said that International Monetary Fund (IMF) has expressed dissatisfaction with the budget for the next financial year, setting the tax collection target as insufficient and demanded to increase the levy on petroleum products.

While briefing the Senate Standing Committee on Finance, officials of the Ministry of Finance said: “IMF has demanded to increase the petroleum levy from Rs50 per liter to Rs60 per liter”.

IMF has imposed the condition of raising the levy to complete the ninth review as it is still not satisfied with not increasing the levy on petroleum products. IMF has expressed the concerns over tax target of Federal Bureau of Revenue (FBR).

IMF has called FBR tax collection efforts insufficient, terming the steps to increase tax net as insufficient. It also asked Pakistan to take steps to increase tax collection.

Officials told the committee that tax target of FBR has been fixed at Rs9200 billion in the budget of next financial year, IMF demanded to increase the rate of levy to deposit Rs869 billion.