‘Fake news’: Govt rejects reports of salary, pension suspension

Spreading fake news causes harm to national economic interests, says Finance Minister Dar

The Ministry of Finance on Saturday rejected the reports claiming that the federal government issued instructions to stop payment of pay and pensions, saying all such rumours are completely false.

The clarification comes after a local English daily reported that the Accountant General of Pakistan Revenue (AGPR) was directed by the finance ministry to stop clearing all the bill of the “federal ministries/divisions and attached departments till further orders”.

Even the clearance of salary bills has also been stopped, the report added.

“This is completely false as no such instructions have been given by the Finance Division, which is the concerned federal ministry,” a press release issued by the finance division said.

Fake news and spreading the same cause harm to the national economic interests.
Kindly refrain from circulating such reports/news without verifying same from the concerned ministry! pic.twitter.com/crimzY44b4

— Ishaq Dar (@MIshaqDar50) February 25, 2023

The statement further said that AGPR has confirmed that pay and pension have already been processed and will be paid on time.

“Further, other payments are being processed as per routine. There are certain rumours doing rounds that the government had instructed to stop such payments,” it added.

Also read: Impasse in talks with IMF on debt surcharge

Finance Minister Ishaq Dar also termed the reports as ‘fake news,’ saying that spreading the same caused harm to the national economic interests.

“Kindly refrain from circulating such reports/news without verifying same from the concerned ministry,” he added.

The development comes as confusion surrounding the International Monetary Fund (IMF) agreement with Pakistan on Wednesday failed to break impasse with the global lender on a new contentious issue of permanently imposing a Rs3.82 per unit debt surcharge to recover Rs284 billion more from electricity consumers.

Against the government’s decision to impose the new surcharge for eight months (March-October 2023), the IMF has asked the government to keep the levy as a permanent fixture in electricity bills until the government settles the Rs800 billion circular debt parked in a company.

The sources said that the finance minister urged the IMF to announce the staff-level agreement since the country had met more than 90% of the conditions. But the IMF termed Rs3.82 per unit debt surcharge as “critical” for the resolution of the power sector circular debt, which will still climb to Rs2.4 trillion despite massive increase in the power tariffs.

The 10-day IMF staff-level visit ended on February 9 and despite taking two more weeks both sides have yet to end their differences on major policy matters.