ISLAMABAD: The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has raised several issues in the fiscal year 2023-24 budget but remains ready to work with Pakistan to refine the budget ahead of its passage, the Fund’s resident representative for Pakistan, Esther Perez Ruiz, said on Wednesday.
She said, “The IMF team stands ready to work with the Government in refining this budget ahead of its passage”.
IMF-Pakistan
Esther Perez Ruiz said that a new tax amnesty scheme proposed by the government of the South Asian country in the FY24 budget sets a “damaging precedent and runs against the programme’s conditionality”. However, her latest statement did not specify which specific amnesty scheme IMF was taking issue with.
She added that the draft FY24 budget “misses an opportunity to broaden the tax base in a more progressive way, and the long list of new tax expenditures decreases further the fairness of the tax system and undercuts the resources needed for greater support for vulnerable BISP recipients and development spending”.
Esther Perez Ruiz further said that steps to address the energy sector’s liquidity pressures could be included alongside the broader budget strategy.
The fiscal year 2023-24 budget was tabled by the government of Pakistan in the National Assembly last week.
