ISLAMABAD: Pakistan introduced a number of changes to its fiscal 2024 budget today, said finance minister Ishaq Dar, in a last-ditch effort to clinch a stalled rescue package with the International Monetary Fund.
“Pakistan and IMF had detailed negotiations as a last effort to complete the pending review,” he told parliament.
For the fiscal year starting next month, Pakistan will raise a further 215 billion Pakistani rupees (US$752 million) in new tax and cut 85 billion Pakistani rupees (US$300 million) in spending, as well as a number of other measures to shrink fiscal deficit, he said.
The review came a day after Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif met with IMF managing director Kristalina Georgieva on the sidelines of the Global Financing Summit in Paris.
About a week remains before the IMF’s Extended Fund Facility agreed in 2019 expires on June 30.
Under the US$6.5 billion facility’s ninth review, negotiated earlier this year, Pakistan has been trying to secure US$1.1 billion of funding stalled since November. – Reuters
