Pakistan assures IMF of reforms, increase in revenue collection, no tax amnesty
Last updated on: 05 July,2023 01:10 pm
Writes Letter of Intent to the world’s top financial institution
ISLAMABAD (Dunya News) – Just days after the securing a staff-level agreement for a $3 billion bailout package with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Pakistan assured the world’s top lender that the country won’t introduce any tax amnesty during the nine-month period covering the new deal.
It was stated in a Letter of Intent (LoI) signed by Finance Minister Ishaq Dar and State Bank Governor Jameel Ahmed – including the assurance that no new tax amnesty would be granted during the next nine months.
The development comes as the IMF Executive Board is set to discuss and approve the nine-month agreement under a Stand-by Arrangement (SBA) that was negotiated after the previous deal known as Extended Fund Facility (EFF) remained incomplete and expired on June 30.
As far as the LoI is concerned, the document contains some other assurances as well which are listed as: increasing revenue collection, ensuring financial discipline, introducing energy reforms, allowing market to determine exchange rate, removing trade restrictions, fulfilling the guarantees given to lending countries and institutions, boosting foreign reserves, and reforms in state institutions.
Read more: Pakistan Stock Exchange bounces over 2,446 points on the back of IMF deal
The positive effects of the deal are already visible as the Pakistan Stock Exchange made recording breaking single-day gains on Monday after the bench mark KSE-100 Index went up by 2,446 points and closed at 43,999.
Similarly, the rupee was up against the US dollar by at least Rs5 in open market. The greenback was traded for Rs284 on a bank holiday as Finance Minister Ishaq Dar claimed that the dollar had been traded for Rs270-Rs272.