In the wee hours of Thursday, newly-appointed Finance Minister Miftah Ismail departed to America to hold talks with the International Monetary Fund for the revival of the $6 billion International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme signed by the PTI government.
On his Twitter handle, Miftah wrote: “I am off to Washington DC to try and put back on track our IMF program that PTI and IK derailed, this endangering our economy. And more happily, after 3 years of being on ECL, I will get to travel to London on the way and meet my leader Mian Nawaz Sharif.”
I am off to Washington DC to try and put back on track our IMF program that PTI and IK derailed, this endangering our economy. And more happily, after 3 years of being on ECL, I will get to travel to London on the way and meet my leader Mian Nawaz Sharif.
— Miftah Ismail (@MiftahIsmail) April 20, 2022
The new government faces a tough task to satisfy the IMF as the subsidies announced by the previous government have worsened the financial situation.
Addressing a presser on Wednesday, the federal finance minister Ismail declared that the Imran Khan government during its four-year stint had borrowed over Rs20,000 billion as loans but did not repay a single penny. He said this government would make all-out efforts to restore the Extended Fund Facility (EFF) programme with International Monetary Fund (IMF). “The government would do whatever was necessary to revive the programme,” he added.
He said the government could reduce public sector development spending with other necessary budgetary discipline arrangements. “We will restore the programme. If the government had to tighten its belt, it will do so,” he said adding that no extra burden would be put on the people.
The government wants to take a number of steps to do away with subsidies extended by the previous government, especially the relief package aimed to provide electricity and fuel at subsidized rates announced by former prime minister Imran Khan to revive its EFF.
A day earlier, in his maiden press conference, the finance minister revealed that the Fund has put five major demands before the Shehbaz Sharif government for slashing down the primary deficit by Rs1,300 billion through withdrawal of fuel subsidy of Rs150 billion on monthly basis and taking additional taxation measures for reviving the stalled Fund programme.