ISLAMABAD, Aug 15: A five-member IMF review mission is arriving here on Aug 28 to take stock of the economy and discuss power sector reforms aimed at improving the financial health of the Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda) and the Karachi Electric Supply Corporation (KESC).

Official sources told Dawn on Friday the mission would be led by the new IMF senior director, Milan Zavadjil, who has replaced Claus Enders.

They said the mission would stress the need for reducing Wapda’s line losses from 25 per cent to 24 per cent during the current fiscal year. The mission would also call for exploring the scope for specific measures to reduce administrative cost of the power authority. It would further insist that at least Rs2 billion of payment on Federally-Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) bills should be collected annually.

The mission is expected to stay in the capital for about ten days and would meet senior officials of the ministries of finance, commerce, State Bank and the Planning Commission.

Later, it would report to its board of directors on the basis of which the next tranche of $120 million would be released, out of the $1.4 billion ongoing Poverty Reduction Growth Facility (PRGF), which would expire on Oct 2004.

Finance Minister Shaukat Aziz told Dawn that detailed talks would be held with the IMF mission. However, he reiterated that the government would not be seeking fresh funds from the IMF. “We have made it clear to the IMF authorities that Pakistan is no more interested in seeking assistance which carry strings,” he added.

He said that Pakistan would continue to implement medium and long-term economic reforms with the financial assistance of the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank (ADB). Since both the donors offer their assistance on reduced mark up, the government would seek new funding arrangements from them, he said.

The main objective of the government, Mr Aziz said, was to ensure continuity and consistency in policies so as to achieve better GDP growth rate, create more job opportunities and improve living conditions of the citizens.

Responding to a question, the minister said that instead of seeking fresh assistance from the IMF, the government had already decided to float $250 million to $500 million bonds within the current year.