Tag: MEFP

  • ‘Ultimate goal is self-reliance’: PM Shehbaz on Pakistan receiving $2bn from IMF

    ‘Ultimate goal is self-reliance’: PM Shehbaz on Pakistan receiving $2bn from IMF

    Prime Minister (PM) Shehbaz Sharif was informed by Finance Minister (FM) Miftah Ismail that Pakistan could receive Rs2 billion from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

    “Miftah Ismail sent a message this morning saying that Pakistan will receive not $1 billion but $2 billion from the IMF. I told him in response, Alhamdulillah, but our ultimate goal is self-reliance,” said PM Shehbaz while addressing the “Turn Around Pakistan” conference.

    The premier’s address comes shortly after Ismail confirmed Pakistan has received the Memorandum of Economic and Financial Policies (MEFP) from the IMF for the seventh and eighth reviews.

    The draft MEFP is a prerequisite to paving the way toward striking a staff-level agreement.

    PM Shehbaz said that although the Opposition created much political drama in recent weeks, he will ask whether it is the “choosers” that are now going to receive $2 billion or “the other word”, referring to beggars from the phrase “beggars can’t be choosers”.

    “There is no shortage of anything in Pakistan and there are experts in every field,” said PM Shehbaz, before lamenting that “billions of dollars are buried in Reko Diq but we have not earned a single penny”.

    “It is a pity that the country’s development and prosperity have not been achieved,” he said.

    Addressing the conference before PM’s speech, Ismail said that when he messaged Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif about the development, he replied: “Well done. But remember our ultimate goal is self-reliance. That will be our legacy,” Miftah said, quoting PM Shehbaz.

  • ‘IMF programme will be revived soon’: Miftah Ismail

    ‘IMF programme will be revived soon’: Miftah Ismail

    Pakistan and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) evolved a broader agreement on the budget 2022-23 to revise upward the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) target and slash down the expenditures to achieve a revenue surplus in the next fiscal year.

    Federal Minister for Revenue and Finance Miftah Ismail had already indicated the revival of the agreement with IMF within a day or two.

    “I am very hopeful that the IMF programme will be revived soon,” said the finance minister. “Pakistan and the IMF locked the budget details and achieved substantial progress on finalising budgetary targets for 2022-23.”

    “Now the Memorandum of Economic and Financial Policies (MEFP) will be shared by the IMF soon,” the minister said.

    “Discussions between the IMF staff and the authorities on policies to strengthen macroeconomic stability in the coming year continue, and important progress has been made over the FY23 budget,” Esther Perez Ruiz, the IMF’s resident representative in Islamabad, told Reuters.

    Miftah said that the government would target raising 96 billion rupees from privatisation in 2022/23. In the current fiscal year, the government did not raise any funds from privatisation.