Weeks before budget, govt replaces finance secretary

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Thursday appointed Imdadullah Bosal as new federal secretary finance, who would face an immediate challenge of opening the public purse ahead of general elections and ensuring fiscal discipline in the face of looming default.

Bosal, a BPS-22 officer of Pakistan Administrative Service, presently posted as special secretary finance, is transferred and posted as secretary Finance Division with immediate effect and until further orders, according to a notification of the Establishment Division.

Bosal has also served as chief secretary Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, secretary industries and additional secretary Ministry of Finance. He has worked with PM Shehbaz in Punjab.

The change came three weeks before the announcement of the budget for fiscal year 2023-24, which is expected to be unveiled on June 9.

The government made the change after the outgoing federal secretary finance Hamed Yaqoob Sheikh decided to proceed on leave. He requested the PM to relieve him of his responsibilities.

Sheikh is proceeding on a two-month leave to attend family engagements abroad. But he is expected to join the UK-funded Revenue Mobilisation, Investment and Trade Programme, known as ReMIT.

Another civil servant from the Inland Revenue Service group is already working on the project.

The UK launched ReMIT to support Pakistan’s efforts to implement reforms for macroeconomic stability and improve conditions for high and sustained growth, mutual prosperity, job creation and poverty reduction.

The project is helping to raise Pakistan’s tax-to-GDP ratio from 13% to 18% by increasing the number of taxpayers, addressing the investment environment challenges faced by the local and UK businesses and assisting to make Pakistan one of the top 50 countries to do business in.

Other goals are to facilitate trade and drive competitiveness, addressing barriers to trade in order to reduce Pakistan’s trade deficit.

If Sheikh decides to join ReMIT, he will be responsible for the trade and investment component. It is expected that another federal secretary, who is near retirement, may also join a foreign-funded project.

Another officer working in the Ministry of Finance has also applied for a position in the World Trade Organisation.

PM Shehbaz had a choice between Awais Manzur, Special Secretary Finance, and Bosal for the post of secretary finance.

Bosal’s immediate challenge will be to strike a balance between the government’s political desire to spend and the need to maintain some fiscal discipline.

The Ministry of Planning has demanded a development budget of Rs1.2 trillion for the next fiscal year, a sum that is Rs500 billion lower than the ceiling indicated by the finance ministry. He will face pressure to increase the ceiling by at least Rs200 billion.

His other challenge will be to resist pressure to give untargeted subsidies to exporters and industrialists.

Bosal will also have to work hard to revive Pakistan-IMF relations, particularly bridging the trust deficit.

The outgoing secretary of finance was in favour of signing another IMF programme after the expiry of the current one by the end of next month. It will also be Bosal’s challenge to convince the political leadership to set aside politics and sign a new multiyear deal with the IMF.

On the administrative front, the new secretary will have to shake up some of the bureaucrats who are deep-rooted in Q Block and are surviving despite their sheer incompetence to manage sensitive fiscal and economic affairs.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 19^th, 2023.

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