By 
ISLAMABAD: The federal government is considering raising the levy on all petroleum products in order to meet another demand issued by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in the fiscal year 2023-24 budget released on Wednesday.
According to sources close to the situation, the Ministry of Finance has recommended hiking the levy rate by Rs10 per litre in order to collect an additional Rs755 billion from this source for the fiscal year 2023-24. PDL is now priced at Rs50 a litre.
According to them, the government has set a target of collecting Rs855 billion through the petroleum levy in the current fiscal year.
However, the collection only reached Rs362 billion in the first nine months of this fiscal year, it noted. The Ministry of finance will change the financial bill in order to raise the petroleum charge.
The IMF wants to see government spending slashed.
Meanwhile, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), in a new engagement with Pakistan, has requested that the federal and provincial governments cut spending.
According to sources, the IMF has also urged that the tax income target be raised over Rs. 10,000 billion during pre-budget talks.
According to reports, in virtual meetings, Pakistan persuaded the lender to move the talks forward and also inquired about the personnel-level agreement.
“The IMF intends to conduct a joint ninth and tenth review of the loan package, but Pakistan wants to complete the ninth review of the bailout package separately.”
According to insiders, the parties also reviewed budget estimates, with the monetary fund pushing for an increase in FBR tax collection to 10,000 billion rupees. It also demanded that actions be taken to boost income tax recovery.
Pakistani negotiators informed the lender that the FBR taxation target would be fixed in the budget at $9,200 billion.
According to sources, the IMF delegation also sought significant cuts in federal and provincial government expenditures and urged for lowering expenses and subsidies in the next fiscal year’s budget.
PM hopes to finalize IMF agreement this month.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has stated that the administration is optimistic about reaching an agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) this month.
PM Shehbaz Sharif stated that his government was able to navigate Pakistan’s issues in the best possible way with the assistance of its people and brotherly and friendly countries.
The prime minister told Anadolu News Agency on Monday that Pakistan has been dealing with a slew of issues since April 2022, when the present government took over after previous Prime Minister Imran Khan was removed in a no-confidence vote.
“We remain optimistic that the IMF program will be implemented.” Our ninth IMF review will match all terms and criteria, and we hope to have some good news this month,” he told Anadolu in Ankara.
