Pakistan should strictly implement all targets: IMF

Islamabad: The review mission of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Thursday arrived in Pakistan on a two-week visit.

According to media reports, the IMF delegation will hold talks with the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Energy and regulatory bodies. They will also hold talks with the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), Federal Bureau of Revenue (FBR) and provincial governments.

It has been reported that the Pakistani authorities will clarify their position on the issue of external financing to the IMF delegation because IMF has expressed concerns on the issue of external financing.  While there are also differences between Pakistan and IMF on the issue of currency exchange.

The IMF has approved amendments to the December 2022 circular to control imports, while Pakistan has increased the prices of electricity and gas to reduce the revolving debt of the energy sector.

Pakistan's foreign exchange reserves and current account deficit are also in line with IMF requirements.

The government's debt to the State Bank is around Rs41 billion which is in line with the target while the FBR has collected Rs66 billion more than the target for revenue collections till October.

According to reports, an introductory session of the IMF delegation was held with the Caretaker Finance Minister Dr. Shamshad Akhtar, where Governor State Bank and FBR officials were also present in the meeting.

The IMF delegation appreciated the steps taken by Pakistan's economic team but it also said that Pakistan has to strictly implement all the targets.

The caretaker finance minister said that all the targets are being implemented under the loan program. All the conditions of IMF have been implemented till the economic review.