ISLAMABAD, April 5: A high-level delegation led by Prime Minister’s Adviser on finance Shaukat Aziz is scheduled to leave for Washington on Monday night to discuss the fifth review of Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility (PRGF) with the International Monetary Fund officials.
Well-placed sources told Dawn on Saturday the delegation would be consisting of federal finance secretary Naveed Ahsan, additional finance secretary Javed Sadiq Malik and member, tax policy reforms of Central Board of Revenue, M.S. Lal.
The PRGF review meeting will begin from April 11 in Washington.
The sources said during the review the Fund officials would make new demands of duty exemption on various items, besides discussing other policy measures for economic reforms which would be attached as
conditionalities with the releasing of next tranche under the PRGF.
They said unlike the past, the decision of levying taxes on more items from the next budget would now be approved from the Parliament.
“This time it would be very difficult for the economic wizards to abide by the conditionalities of levying further taxes on more items from the next budget as the political government would hardly allow maximum taxing of items,” the sources said.
According to the sources, State Bank Governor Dr Ishrat Hussain, who had already left for Washington, gave detail briefing to the Fund officials on the monetary policy measures so far taken by the Pakistani government for reforming the economy, said the officials.
The sources said all the previous conditionalities attached with the PRGF — mostly related to bringing more items under the tax net — were fulfilled by the economic wizards.
The CBR has also been able to collect Rs310.24 billion revenue during the July-March period of the current financial year against the target of Rs310.2 billion.
It is for the first time the CBR has been able to meet all the quarterly targets and has not sought any revision in respect of its targets, said the sources.
The delegation, apart form the revenue targets, would also discuss the economic and tax policy related issues during the fifth review of PRGF, added the sources.