ISAMABAD: Chairman FBR Tariq Bajwa will participate in policy level talks with the IMF review mission in Dubai starting from February 5, 2014.
The policy level talks will commence from Feb 5, 2014 for four days in which both sides will agree on new set of conditions for next quarter which will pave the way for release of tranche worth $545 million under $6.67 billion Extended Fund Facility (EFF).
There will be two rounds of talks going to be held between the two sides. The technical round of talks will be started from February 1 and both sides will firm up their numbers till February 5.
In technical talks, the representatives of Finance Ministry, State Bank of Pakistan and FBR will brief the IMF team about overall fiscal situation, monetary developments and FBR’s tax collection target achieved in first seven months and prospects of various economic indicators in the remaining five months of the current fiscal year.
“In the policy level talks, Pakistan’s team led by Finance Minister Ishaq Dar and comprising
Secretary Finance Dr Waqar Masood, Chairman FBR Tariq Bajwa and Governor SBP Yaseen Anwar will accomplish this important round of review talks,” said the official sources.
Keeping in view the tax shortfall in the first seven months, it will be quite hard for the economic managers to convince the IMF for avoiding additional tax measures as the Fund staff will insist upon the authorities to bridge this gap by taking additional measures.
On other hand, the FBR has finalized its strategy to extensively brief the IMF team about its plan to achieve the desired results. The FBR intends to launch an aggressive scheme for broadening of tax base as well as enforcement plan to display Rs 2475 billion on its board by June 30, 2014. Otherwise, the shortfall will repeat the same old history which is potential threat to derail the IMF program.
