Share this story!            

Aid from ‘friends’ now conditional: Tareen

* Finance adviser unfolds government’s strategy to combat country’s economic crisis

LAHORE: The ‘Friends of Pakistan’ forum has made its financial aid to Pakistan conditional on the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) certification of the country’s economic programme, Geo News quoted Finance Adviser Shaukat Tareen as saying on Wednesday.

As talks with international financial institutions and the IMF continued, Tareen told the media after the Senate session in Islamabad that Pakistan had already been asked to submit its economic programme with the fund. Tareen said the IMF had also already reviewed the option of discounting the economic programme in the provision of financial aid. He told the media that financial aid from the ‘Friends of Pakistan’ would be warmly welcomed.

The finance adviser earlier told the Senate that a loan from the IMF would be used as a last resort. He also told the House about the government’s plan to deal with the economic crisis – which would be based on consolidating foreign exchange reserves, reducing the fiscal deficit, cutting down expenditure, agriculture-and manufacturing-led growth, a safety net for the poor and human resource development. Briefing the members on the current situation, he said the country’s economy was in shambles.

The government would have no other option but to go to the IMF in case it did not get $4 to $5 billion from elsewhere over the next 15-20 days, he added. Tareen said the government wanted funds from the IMF on Pakistan’s terms. He said Pakistan would have to increase its tax to GDP ratio to get out of the current situation. Leader of the House Senator Raza Rabbani and several other senators, however, opposed the IMF option. staff report/daily times monitor

Home | National

Share this story!