Violation of IMF agreement revealed

Islamabad: The government has approved technical supplementary grants worth Rs272 billion violating the agreement made with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), reportedly.

There is no scope for supplementary grants under the program decided by the IMF which is currently being implemented.

The Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the Federal Cabinet has approved technical supplementary grants worth Rs272 billion for the current financial year.

Regular supplementary grant is based on increase in the budget grant whereas technical supplementary grant means adding a grant fixed in the budget to the grant of another item. A finance ministry official said that the technical supplementary grant does not increase the overall expenditure of the government.

Earlier on July 18, 2023, the 11-party coalition government led by Shehbaz Sharif assured the IMF through the Memorandum of Economic and Financial Policies during the negotiations that it will not sanction any Technical Supplementary Grants beyond the budgetary limits in FY 2024 beyond the financial level decided by the Parliament.

The caretaker government, in its latest Memorandum of Economic and Financial Policies dated 19 January 2024, assured the IMF that no more supplementary grants would be sanctioned for the current financial year.

According to the data collected by a business website, on October 23, 2023, the ECC of the Cabinet approved a supplementary grant of Rs484 million. Its purpose was to enable payment of salaries and allowances of 414 contract employees of "ERA" from July 2023 onwards.

Earlier on November 10, 2023, the ECC while approving the summary given by the Ministry of Home Affairs, approved a supplementary grant of Rs47.450 million. The ECC also approved a supplementary grant of Rs5 billion under a summary of the Ministry of Information.

While on November 15, 2023, the Economic Coordination Committee approved a supplementary grant of Rs 42.37 million for PSDP projects to the Ministry of Energy (Petroleum Division).

On December 20, 2023, the ECC approved a supplementary grant of Rs262 billion for public sector power plants based on the summary given by the Power Division.

On January 9, 2024, a technical supplementary grant of Rs 25 crore was approved by the ECC for field activities, up-gradation and technological development of the Intelligence Bureau.

A technical supplementary grant of Rs3.568 billion was approved for the Federal Directorate of Immunization and a technical supplementary grant of Rs100 million was approved for the Ministry of Inter-Provincial Relations.