Finance minister says govt committed to build upon hard-earned macroeconomic stability. Pakistan discussed $7b bailout reform agenda with IMF in unusual talks.

 

ISLAMABAD  -  Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb has that said Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif would soon announce a home grown economic roadmap for the coun­try to move forward saying that it has been very well syndicated with all the stakeholders.

The government was commit­ted to build upon hard earned macroeconomic stability that re­duced rate of inflation from 38pc to just 7pc and the policy rate from 22pc to 15pc and foreign exchange reserves from just two-week import coverage to two and half months cover, the minis­ter said while talking on Pakistan Television and added “We are now taking it to three months of import cover with conjunction of station bank.” 

To face the challenges of cli­mate emergency, the minister called for a national charter of environment. Climate emergen­cy, population growth and child stunting had become Pakistan’s serious challenges for which ev­ery segment of society, including political parties, media or others should contribute, start talking and move forward for charter of environment apart from charter of economy, Aurangzeb said.

The finance minister said that the international community had complimented Pakistan’s economic turnaround in a short span of 14 months during the recent meetings of the IMF and the World Bank in Washing­ton. “We have also received an equally important message; no room for complacency stay the course,” he said. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif would shortly share a home grown economic roadmap that is very well syndi­cated with all stakeholders, the finance minister said.

He said the recent visit of a staff mission of International Mone­tary Fund (IMF) to Pakistan was concluded on a positive note and helped build confidence. He said Pakistan reminded the mission about its request for additional support for climate resiliency.

He said that Pakistan dis­cussed its $7 billion bailout re­form agenda with the IMF during an unscheduled staff visit last week. “We discussed reforms in taxa­tion, energy sector, privatisation of loss-making state-owned enterpris­es (SOEs) and public finance,” Au­rangzeb said.

Discussions covered quarterly quantitative and structural bench­mark that was clear, transparent and available on the websites of the IMF and the ministry of finance.

These included reforms in taxa­tion, energy and state owned enti­ties, privatization agenda and public finance. He said the quantitative and structural benchmarks required by end of September had been met and the IMF was updated on the public finance that required rightsizing of the entire federal government and how this process would be taken forward.

The minister said all the sectors of economic including the real estate, wholesale and agriculture would have to pay their due share in the form of taxes to the economy and vowed to ensure this through com­pliance and enforcement.

He reiterated that tax contribu­tion from all sectors was unavoid­able and it was no more possible to keep further burdening the salaried and manufacturing sectors. “All of us have to play our role”, he said.

The finance minister said the cli­mate emergency, population growth and child stunting had become Paki­stan’s serious challenges for which every segment of society, including political parties, media or others should contribute and start talking and move forward for charter of en­vironment apart from charter of economy.

He said Pakistan’s 40pc children had stunted growth and the way pop­ulation was growing and environ­ment crisis increasing, this was not sustainable for the country to grow “We are facing population and cli­mate emergency”, he said adding that the media, political parties and others should discuss challenges like flood­ing, decarbonization and pollution.

The finance minister commended all the four chief ministers for kind of cooperation he received on pub­lic finance including provincial tax­es and other responsibilities saying it was a whole of the government ap­proach and not like federal govern­ment was doing one thing or how provinces were functioning.

After wrapping up the visit, the IMF had said it was encouraged by Islamabad’s reaffirmed commitment to the economic reforms under the Extended Fund Facility its board had approved in September to reduce vulnerabilities. The IMF said both sides agreed on the need to contin­ue prudent fiscal and monetary pol­icies, and to mobilise revenue from untapped tax bases.