Pakistan to receive $506 million tranche from IMF in June

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan: Pakistan and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have successfully completed 7th review of the extended fund facility, paving the way for release of next tranche of $506 million to Pakistan by June 2015.   

The announcement in this regard was made by the Federal Finance Minister Ishaq Dar in a press conference in Islamabad after completion of final round of talks with the IMF on Monday afternoon.

The finance minister said that it is for the first time that Pakistan has reached the level of 7th review with the IMF under any program.

Ishaq Dar said that revenue collection by the Federal Bureau of Revenue (FBR) in first 10 months of the current financial year is Rs1,969 billion which is 12.8% increase over Rs1,745 billion of comparable period last year.

The minister said that Pakistan is determined to achieve the fiscal deficit target of 4.9% this year and next year’s target has been kept at 4.3% in view of expenditure on the military operation Zarb-e-Azb and rehabilitation of temporarily displaced persons (TDPs).

The federal minister for finance said that current account deficit is likely to be under 1% this year because of decline in prices of oil in the international market and increased remittances by overseas Pakistanis. He said that overseas Pakistanis sent Rs14.97 billion dollars in first 10 months as against Rs12.9 billion same period last year, showing 16% increase.

The finance minister said that foreign exchange reserves with the State Bank of Pakistan were $17.6 billion and the government has a target of crossing the level of reserves above 1$8.5 billion in coming Ramazan.

Dar said that inflation was recorded at 2.1% in April 2015 which is lowest in 12 years. He said that the average consumer price index for first 10 months was 4.8% as against 8.4% same period last year.

In addition, he said that the National Identity Card (NIC) number would be the tax number from next financial year.