Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: International Monetary Fund (IMF) Mission chief to Pakistan Herald Finger has denied the reports that IMF had given “Finance Minister of the year 2016 for South Asia award” to Pakistan’ Finance Minister Ishaq Dar.

He was addressing Daily Times via video link from Washington to Pakistani Media personals at Islamabad on Thursday. Mission chief Herald Finger said that “we have no relation with the Magazine who gave the Award to Finance Minister Ishaq Dar.”

He emphasised upon Pakistani government to make the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) more transparent. “CPEC projects will increase the external debt to Pakistan,” he said. Herald Finger said that Pakistan has to expedite the work on Privatisation Program and make reforms to the energy sector. Load shedding is a grave issue in Pakistan and the government has to pay more attention to this.

He predicts that the Pakistani government will not achieve the GDP target of current fiscal year 2016-17 and termed it will remain around 5 percent of the GDP. Circular debt has been reduced from Rs 200 billion to 8 billion through concrete steps made by the Pakistani government. He said that Pakistani government had managed this through increasing in electricity prices, controls on electricity theft and sustainable improvement in the recoveries of electricity bills.

IMF has provided the final tranche of Rs 73 million to Pakistan and with this three year IMF Extended Fund Facility (EFF) program. Pakistan has to provide a business friendly environment to attract investors, he further said.

It is worth mentioning here that the finance ministry released a communiqué on 8 October in which it stated that Emerging Markets, the newspaper of the IMF / World Bank Annual Meeting, had declared Senator Ishaq Dar as: “Finance Minister of 2016 for South Asia”.

“The Award is recognition of Pakistan’s economic performance at the IMF / World Bank Annual Meeting which is one of the major gatherings of international financial and economic leaders and experts. The finance minister has authorized Pakistan’s Ambassador to the United States, Ambassador Jalil Abbas Jilani, to receive the award on his behalf.”