Debt of Pakistan declined from 88 to 84%, states IMF

ISLAMABAD: The International Monetary Fund (IMF) stated that the debt of Pakistan which included collateral mortgage and IMF has declined by four percent.

A recent report published by the IMF stated that Pakistan’s debt was reduced from 88 percent to 84.7 percent. This decrease was primarily to reduce spending and register a basic budget surplus.

On the other hand, tax and non-tax revenue increased. In the first quarter of fiscal year 20-2019, the budget implementation by the current government improved, leading to a basic surplus of 0.6 percent of GDP and a gross deficit of 0.6 percent.

According to the IMF, an increase in non-tax revenue and tax revenue net of refunds made the performance more improved.

The tax policy measures executed at the beginning of the fiscal year 2020, the taxpayer’s share of the tax collected by the FBR recorded a 25 percent increase.

Earlier, IMF Mission Chief Ernesto Ramirez Rigo said that Pakistan remained committed to all the objectives under the Extended Fund Facility (EFF).

Speaking about the implementations from Pakistan under EFF, Ernesto Ramirez Rigo said that the IMF has already started to see improvements on the fiscal accounts.

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Rigo said, “It is very important that this improvement is based on better underpinning for it to be permanent that will require continued work on the tax revenue side, rather than just on total revenue increases, or containing expenditure.”

The programme implementations by Pakistan have been on track for the first review under the EFF.