Bailout Package: Pakistan, IMF to Start Policy Level Talks From Tuesday

The government and the visiting delegation of International Monetary Fund (IMF) will start policy level talks for the bailout package Pakistan is seeking from the fund to stave off a possible balance of payment crisis. An IMF delegation headed by its Washington-based mission chief Herald Finger is in Pakistan for talks over the bailout package Pakistan has sought. The IMF delegation has arrived in Islamabad on November 07, 2018 and has been engaged with the government officials on technical aspects of the possible program. ALSO READ IMF Advises Pak Railways to Stop Relying on Govt Subsidies In the policy-level talks scheduled to be started from Tuesday, Pakistan Pakistani side will be represented by secretary finance, chairman of Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), governor of State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) and other senior officials led by Finance Minister, Asad Umar. During the talks on the technical aspect of the possible bailout package, Pakistan has reportedly informed the IMF delegation about a Wealth Fund that the government intends to set up for loss-making Public Sector Enterprises (PSEs) in order to make them profitable before their divestment. There are reports that the IMF has pressed the Pakistani government to hike prices of the petroleum products by up to PKR15 per litre in a phased manner. ALSO READ Pakistan Foreign Exchange Reserves Decrease Further by $48 Million During the policy level of talks, the IMF delegation will review the country’s central bank’s financial independence and performance of FBR. The IMF urged the government to control the losses of the state entities. The visiting team of the lender has also expressed dissatisfaction over the performance of the energy sector and the ballooning circulation debt, local media reported. Pakistan facing $12 billion external financing gap secured $6 billion bailout package from Saudi Arabia, $3 billion in foreign currency support and $3 billion worth of oil on deferred payments during the visit of Prime Minister Imran Khan. “The country is now out of balance of payment crisis”, Finance Minister, Asad Umar, announced earlier last week during a press conference held to brief about the recent visit of Prime Minister to China.