Daily Times

Pakistan has successfully negotiated with the International Monetary Fund to avert a mini-budget before the fiscal year ends in June.

According to Finance Ministry officials, as the final round of talks wrapped up , the government has received positive signals from the global lender regarding the country’s economic performance, clearing the path for the release of a $1 billion tranche under the ongoing $7 billion loan program.

Sources close to the negotiations revealed that the IMF mission, headed by Nathan Porter, engaged in comprehensive discussions with Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb, examining both the economic achievements of the first half of the fiscal year and forward-looking policy objectives.

“The Fund has expressed satisfaction with our fiscal management, though they continue to emphasize the need for expanding the tax base,” a senior ministry official told this ProPakistani on condition of anonymity.

The IMF has particularly stressed bringing more businesses from the retail, wholesale, real estate, and dealership sectors into the tax net to ensure sustainable revenue generation over the long term.

In what officials describe as a significant breakthrough, the Federal Board of Revenue convinced the IMF to lower the annual tax revenue target from Rs. 12,970 billion to Rs. 12,370 billion after demonstrating improvements in the tax-to-GDP ratio.