July 3, 2002	Wednesday	Rabi-us-Sani 21,1423

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ISLAMABAD, July 2: The Executive Board of the IMF is meeting in Washington on Wednesday to approve the third tranche of $109 million, out of $1.3 billion Poverty Reduction Growth Facility (PRGF) for Pakistan.

Official sources said Pakistan had been informed that the IMF board would take a sympathetic view for approving the third instalment despite shortfalls in revenues.

Pakistan has requested for waiver on revenue shortfalls mainly on the grounds of low imports recorded in the wake of September 11 events of last year and paying exceptionally high Rs15 billion refunds to the exporters.

According to Finance Minister Shaukat Aziz, the PRGF should be the last IMF programme in Pakistan as the country did not require exceptional foreign funding. However, he maintained, Pakistan would continue to seek development funds specially from the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank on low mark-up.

The PRGF is a three-your programme and contained instalment of $109 million and has been offered on highly reduced interest rate.