The International Monetary Fund board on Monday approved a $1.3 billion loan by granting waivers against missing a few core conditions and securing fresh commitment from Pakistan to introduce new tax measures to offset the impact of a huge revenue shortfall. 

To win the IMF board meeting date, the Pakistani authorities had agreed to fulfill two prior actions –a guarantee to issue an order to restructure an undercapitalized bank and publish the Governance and Corruption Diagnostic Assessment report –the latter hit on its political capital. 

The global lender approved nearly $1.1 billion under the Extended Fund Facility (EFF) and another $220 million under the Resilience and Sustainability Facility (RSF), according to the decision that would keep the $8.4 billion worth two loan programmes on track. 

The Ministry of Finance had to face criticism from within, as it remained glued to the conditions agreed with the IMF. The bureaucracy of the Finance Ministry played a key role in keeping the programme on the track. 

The IMF’s programme has stabilised the economy and the Finance Ministry showed first primary budget surplus in years and put a stop to an exponential increase in public debt. Prime Minister has praised the performance of the economic team, particularly the Finance Secretary Imdad Ullah Bosal.

The $1.1 billion is the third tranche under the $7 billion economic stabilization package, which is approved on the basis of Pakistan’s economic performance for the January-June period of the last fiscal year. But to pave the path for the approval and the continuation of the programme, the board accepted Pakistan’s request to grant waivers on missing some of the conditions for the end-June period and relaxed at least three conditions for the next review. 

The IMF programme has brought economic stabilization but the structural reforms have yet to take root amid the national coordinator of the Special Investment Facilitation Council’s call for a growth plan. 

The government sources said that the IMF board waived off the condition of quantitative performance criterion of spending Rs599 billion under the Benazir Income Support Programme. The spending remained below the IMF target. But the central bank over performed on another condition of building the net international reserves after it bought $8.4 billion from the local market. 

The sources said that the IMF also relaxed the end-December condition on primary budget surplus due to the impact of the floods, adjusted the target about the filing of new income tax returns and the BISP spending. 

The government had also missed the conditions on achieving the tax target and provincial spending on health and education. But it met the conditions on restricting power sector circular debt, and enhancing the maturity of the domestic debt to reduce refinancing risks. 

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The government had managed to meet eight structural benchmarks that were related to bringing some improvement in areas that were critical to address the economic vulnerabilities. However, it could not achieve few other structural conditions related to amending the state-owned enterprises laws, imposing federal excise duty on fertilizer and pesticides and timely publishing the Governance and Corruption Diagnostic Assessment report. 

The corruption assessment report was published with a lag, which the chairman of the National Assembly Standing Committee on Finance described as “indictment of the government and the Parliament”. 

The IMF board was told that the corruption report’s publication was delayed due to needed consultations with the government agencies. The Board on Monday also relaxed the deadline to publish the action plan by the end of this month to address the corruption and governance related weaknesses. 

The government has assured the IMF that it would now amend the SOEs laws by August next year, and stood ready to impose the federal excise duty on fertilizer and pesticides as part of the contingency measures to offset the revenue shortfall. 

The Federal Board of Revenue missed its first five months tax collection target by a wide margin of Rs413 billion and it has promised to impose a mini-budget from January. However, Chairman FBR Rashid Langrial said last month that although the contingency measures had been agreed with the IMF, there would be no need to trigger them. 

The sources said that the government also missed the condition of not granting any new tax exemption, as it gave the exemption on the import of sugar, which it first had exported that created a shortfall in the local market. 
The central bank told the IMF board that it exercised the right under the Banking Companies Ordinance to restructure and wind up an undercapitalized bank as part of the IMF prior actions. 

The board has been assured for the completion of the next review of the $7 billion deal, the government would introduce new tax policy measures, if needed to offset revenue shortfall. It has also assured that the appropriate monetary policy would continue to keep the inflation under check. 

However, Lt General Sarfraz Ahmad, the national coordinator of the SIFC, urged the central bank a few days ago to cut the interest rates by reflecting the ground realities of low inflation of around 6%. 

The federal government promised with the IMF that it would regularly adjust the electricity and gas prices and reduce the footprints of the state. 

The central bank also assured the IMF board that it would implement the flexible exchange rate.