Tag: Finance Ministry

  • Pakistan, IMF agree on reforms for release of $500m

    Pakistan, IMF agree on reforms for release of $500m

    The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and Pakistan on Tuesday reached a staff-level agreement over reforms that will lead to the release of around $500 million in funds, the IMF and the finance ministry said.

    The package strikes an appropriate balance between supporting the economy, ensuring debt sustainability and advancing structural reform, the fund said in a statement.

    “Pending approval of the Executive Board, the reviews’ completion would release around US$500 million,” the IMF said.

    Finance Minister Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh also confirmed the agreement on Twitter, saying that “overcoming the challenges created by the pandemic has required concerted effort”.

    “This is a good development for Pakistan,” he added.

    In a statement, IMF said that Pakistan’s progress under the Extended Fund Facility (EFF) had been temporarily disrupted by the shock of the pandemic.

    “The Pakistani authorities remain committed to ambitious policy actions and structural reforms to strengthen economic resilience, advance sustainable growth, and achieve the EFF’s medium-term objectives,” the statement noted.

    Last month, State Bank of Pakistan Governor Dr Reza Baqir had said that Pakistan was in talks with the IMF to put the financial support programme back on track.

    “We hope to have good news for the market and the world that we are putting the programme back on track,” Baqir had said.

    Last year, staff from the IMF and Pakistani authorities reached an agreement to pave the way for a disbursement of $450m in IMF funds pending approval from the global lender’s executive board.

    Pakistan and the IMF have been working to implement IMF-supported economic reforms, in particular tax collection, aimed at stabilising the economy and shoring up a yawning fiscal deficit.

    Pakistan entered a $6 billion IMF programme in 2019.

  • Civil govt’s expenditure reduced by Rs9 billion in Q1 2019-20, claims finance ministry

    Civil govt’s expenditure reduced by Rs9 billion in Q1 2019-20, claims finance ministry

    The Ministry of Finance has claimed that civil government’s expenditure has reduced by Rs9 billion in the first quarter of the current fiscal year (2019-20) compared to the same period of the last fiscal year (2018-19), a private news outlet has reported.

    According to the reports, in order to revamp the entire Public Financial Management System, Finance Division has presented the Public Finance Management (PFM) law which has been approved and enacted.

    Moreover, this law has reportedly put several controls and monitoring mechanisms on federal spending units, the cabinet, and the parliament. The committee under the PFM Act will oversee the implementation and secondary legislation has been notified. Finance Division is working on the introduction of pre-audit and internal audit systems within ministries.

    Reports further reveal that the Treasury Single Account (TSA) policy and framework have been approved and recently, the Fiscal Advisory Department of IMF [International Monetary Fund] extended technical facilitation to achieve structured implementation of TSA which revolves around efficient cash management, treasury management, and debt management.

    Finance Division is also reportedly involved in the working of the Task Force on Restructuring of the federal government where realignment of federal entities is underway leading to merger, liquidation, and retention of selected entities.