- Pakistan envisages 2 to 2.5 billion dollars per increase in the eff via RSF.
- Govt prepares the report under IMF conditions to qualify.
- Report works on the selection of PSDP diagrams.
Islamabad: The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has confirmed that two of its missions will go to Pakistan in the next two weeks; The first mission will focus on discussion concerning climate financing, while the second will make the first review of Pakistan’s progress as part of the extensive funding of $ 7 billion (EFF), The news reported on Saturday.
“A team of IMF staff should visit Pakistan at the start of mid-March for the discussions around the first review as part of the Pakistan program on the installations of the extended fund, and the assistance of the authorities under ‘An agreement of resilience and sustainability (RSF).
The manager added that a technical team will be in Pakistan from the end of February to discuss technical problems related to a possible RSF arrangement.
Confirmation comes a few days after the publication reported that an IMF examination mission was due to Pakistan during the first week of March.
The government led by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif obtained approval from the IMF executive council for the fresh loans program in September 2024, followed by the disbursement of a branch of $ 1.02 billion.
With IMF officials in Pakistan, Islamabad will also have to develop a wider consensus on the main contours of the next budget for 2025-266 with lender staff.
If the two parties do not reach a consensus, the completion of the first exam could be linked to the approval by the budget parliament.
As agreed, the first examination and approval of a billion dollars by the IMF board of directors should be carried out by April 2025.
However, official sources have said The news In discussions in the background, first of all a technical team of the IMF would arrive in Islamabad next Monday (February 24) for having held talks under the RSF under which Pakistan had applied for funding from 1 to $ 1.5 billion to increase the existing loan by $ 7. billions under EFF up to 8 or 8.5 billion dollars.
The conclusions of this technical mission will then strengthen the first review in the context of the EFF arrangement, because the IMF exam mission should visit Islamabad at the beginning of next month from March 4, 2025, for Having discussed various sectors of the economy for almost 10 to 12 days, after which the staff of the fund would take at least four to six weeks to present their report to the IMF executive council, provided that the two parties concluded one agreement At the staff level in the next revision talks.
In the case of smooth navigation in technical and examination missions, Pakistan would be able to obtain $ 2.5 billion thanks to the release of a second episode of $ 1 billion and The increase in efficient thanks to an RSF loan ease from $ 1 to 1.5 billion.
In order to qualify for the RSF, Pakistan has prepared a report of public investment procedures and parameters under IMF conditions and its main contours will be discussed during the next parliays with the IMF’s technical team next week. The federal government has also agreed with the IMF that no provincial project will be funded from the federal development allowance in the PSDP.
This report incorporated 10 factors on the basis of which the next regime of the public sector development program (PSDP) will be selected, in particular (i) strategic and main projects in progress, (ii) projects with 80% plus expenses with An estimate of realistic completion (((((ii)) exceptional and high score infrastructure projects (iv) Projects approved by DDWP Pre-scrutinized against the criteria given, (v) projects financed abroad with adequate RUP coverage the allowance within the Projects of Provincial Nature of the IBC, (VI) in 20 least developed districts (VII) in the newly mixed districts (NMDS) and in other areas to ensure fair regional development (VIII) of PPP projects, where PSDP financing is used as used as equity or as a viability difference, (ix) reactive projects and resilients to the climate, (x) ready for investment projects.
It has also been decided with the consent of the National Economic Council (NEC) only 10% of new projects will be included in the PSDP list of the next budget for 2025-26.
Speaking of this scribe, the Minister of Planning Ahsan Iqbal said that the share of provincial plans in the PSDP increased from 14% in 2018 to more than 42% until 2022, leaving no tax space to undertake D ‘important national development projects via the PSDP.
He allegedly alleged that the development framework had been destroyed during the PTI -managed regime and now the government was linked to include only 10% of new projects in the PSDP list.
All resources will be diverted to the completion of current projects, he said and added that the Jet-Avant would be cut in the years to come.