ISLAMABAD: Pakistan will receive $2.77 billion ‘unconditional’ funds from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Aug 23, Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin on Thursday announced.
Speaking at a press conference along with the Special Assistant to the Prime Minister (SAPM) on Finance and Revenue, Waqar Masood, the finance minister said that the government would address the global lender’s concerns over its proposed Rs1.6 trillion worth of Kamyab Pakistan Programme (KPP) and take forward the $6bn Extended Fund Facility currently “in recess”.
He said Pakistan will receive the on account of the general allocation of Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) which the lending board approved to solve liquidity issues amid the coronavirus pandemic across the globe.
The minister said the IMF would transfer $2.77bn of the country’s share to the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) account on Aug 23 out of $650bn general allocation the Washington-based lending agency made to all its members to boost international liquidity challenged by the global health pandemic.
“Pakistan’s share in the general allocation is 0.43 per cent and $2.77bn would be transferred to our account,” he said. “This support is unconditional, has no cost, will increase our reserves and will have salutary effect on Pakistani rupee.”
He said that Pakistan had been already working on a reform programme to bring stability and sustainability under the IMF programme, adding that measures taken by the government had been bearing fruits as shown by the growth in revenue collection, which he said was indicative of economic growth.
The minister thanked the IMF for promoting global liquidity, particularly in countries which have been facing challenges amid the pandemic.
While replying to the question pertaining to the $1.2bn IMF corona support fund, Tarin said he would not comment on the earlier emergency support as the Auditor General of Pakistan (AGP) had written 34,000 audit paras and a lot of people would be writing replies as departments will have to answer; however, the money will be used a transparent way.
“What I can assure is that these additional funds would be utilised with proper consultation to avoid any distortion in the economy. Nobody will be allowed to go shopping in malls while I am around,” he said.
On another question, Tarin replied that the IMF wanted to increase the electricity tariff which would surely make the lower class of society suffer.
On the Kamyab Pakistan Programme, he said that negotiations are also underway with the IMF. “The IMF has sent some questions regarding the program, whether the people who will be given the money are qualified”.
The finance minister said that the programme is for the poor on which hundreds of hours were spent. He also said that we will be in a good position to negotiate with the IMF in September as we have the data for June, July and August.
Responding to a question, he said he would soon share good news about Saudi oil facility. He also affirmed that inflation remained a challenge mainly because of higher food prices, role of middlemen and imported inflation. He said administrative actions to contain prices of sugar, wheat flour, ghee, etc, had been hampered by stay orders and the government was not creating strategic reserves through imports to flood the market.
On inflation, he said that the government has suspended three to four ACs who failed to get prices checked and vowed to control inflation by taking administrative measures.
