ISLAMABAD: Finance Minister Miftah Ismail confirmed that government has sent letter of intent (LoI) back to International Monetary Fund (IMF) after fulfilling pre-requisites, paving way for executive board’s meeting. In his conversation with journalists, finance minister said that document received on August 12 was sent to lender after his and State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) Acting Governor Murtaza Syed’s signatures. Development has paved way for IMF’s August 29 executive board meeting, where Pakistan’s request to approve seventh and eighth reviews and release a tranche of $ 1.17 billion under Extended Fund Facility (EFF) will be taken up. IMF programme got stalled in February 2022 when PTI-led government announced untargeted fuel and electricity subsidies soon after getting approval on completion of sixth review and release of $ 1 billion tranche from IMF.

In response to a question, he said that no decision has been taken about introducing new taxes through an ordinance. “Prime Minister will make a final decision in this regard.” In LoI, according to sources, Pakistan has assured Fund that government will increase price of petroleum products by imposing a levy of up to Rs 50. They added that government will gradually increase petroleum levy and take it up to Rs 50 by 2023. After completing a slew of difficult prior actions, Pakistan finally received staff-level approval to resume and extend its IMF programme, which should pave way for board approval barring any policy mistakes,” said Patrick Curran, a senior economist at London-based research firm Tellimer Ltd. 

Published in The Daily National Courier, August, 18 2022

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