LAHORE: The International Monetary Fund (IMF) agrees that Punjab is on track to achieve its committed surplus of Rs630 billion at the end of the current financial year, provincial information minister Azma Bokhari said on Sunday.

In a statement, issued in response to a report published in Dawn on Nov 17, she said the lender had also endorsed the Punjab government’s claim of enjoying a cash surplus at the end of the first quarter of the current fiscal year, she said.

The minister said the Fund agreed that the provincial government had a surplus of approximately Rs 40 billion.

Subsequently, she said, the Ministry of Finance had corrected its data and uploaded revised fiscal operations reflecting Punjab government’s surplus.

The minister also disputed reports that the government of Punjab had invested in any UAE-based fund, adding that “this was never discussed in the meeting of IMF with the functionaries of the government of Punjab”.

Published in Dawn, November 18th, 2024