IMF meeting: Loan tranche not on agenda

Pakistan’s case for approval of next loan tranche of $1.7 billion not on the agenda of IMF.

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s case for the approval of the next loan tranche of $1.7 billion will not be on the agenda of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) executive board’s meeting on December 17.

Sources said that due to the inability to approve and impose reformed general sales tax (RGST), the country will not be able to present its case. It was necessary for the case to be prepared and sent to the IMF 12 to 15 days before the executive board’s meeting for it to be part of the agenda, which is not possible now.

The country will now have to approach the donor for a three-month extension to its standby programme but even that is contingent upon the government’s ability to impose the RGST as part of implementing the IMF’s conditions.

The government has already decided in principle to ask for an extension in the standby arrangement so that it may have time to implement the IMF’s conditions properly, added sources.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 10^th, 2010.