IMF asks Pakistan to revise budget to meet staff-level agreement reports local media

Islamabad: The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has asked Pakistan to revise the budgetary framework for 2023-24 before its passage from the parliament in order to strike a staff-level agreement, The News International newspaper reported...

Pakistan and the IMF are making efforts to evolve a broader agreement on the budgetary framework which, if struck, could pave the way for approval of the budget for 2023-24 with revisions, including jacking up the FBRs tax collection target and slashing expenditures...

A top official privy to the ongoing negotiations between Pakistan and the IMF held virtually from Islamabad and Washington on Friday, said: The Pakistani side shared the revised budgetary estimates for next fiscal year with the IMF but so far a broader agreement is yet to be achieved...

Now it might be done on Monday.. In the aftermath of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharifs meeting with the IMFs MD in Paris, Pakistan and the IMF held two rounds of virtual talks in the last 24 hours in an effort to move towards a staff-level agreement...

The Pakistani authorities shared revised budgetary estimates for the next fiscal year with the IMF review mission with expectations to evolve a broader agreement on the budgetary framework, it is yet to be seen to what extent both sides reconcile their differences and evolve a consensus on major thorny issues..

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