Pakistan has started talks with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Doha to strike a staff-level agreement for the release of a $1 billion tranche under the Extended Fund Facility (EFF), the Ministry of Finance confirmed Wednesday. The ministry confirmed on Twitter that talks with the IMF mission started today. “Talks with the IMF Mission started today. Finance Minister Miftah Ismail, [Minister of State] Dr Aisha Ghous Pasha, Finance Secretary Hamed Yaqoob Shaikh, central banks’ acting governor Dr Murtaza Syed, Chairman [Federal Board of Revenue] Asim Ahmad and senior officers from the Finance Division joined virtually,” the ministry stated on its Twitter handle. The talks with the Fund will continue till May 25. Islamabad will have to convince the IMF to release the $1 billion loan tranche immediately as Pakistan struggles to protect its economy from a major meltdown. During the technical-level talks with IMF officials, the Pakistani delegation is being led by Finance Secretary Hamed Yaqoob, while the delegation includes representatives of the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) and Ministry of Energy. Meanwhile, Federal Minister for Finance and Revenue Miftah Ismail will lead the policy-level talks after the completion of technical-level talks. It was learnt that the IMF is all set to ask policymakers for further tightening of fiscal and monetary policies. It will recommend taking additional taxation measures in the upcoming budget. The IMF has asked Islamabad to jack up the FBR’s tax collection target of Rs7,255 billion for the next budget of 2022-23 against the desired target of Rs6,100 billion for the current fiscal year.