The financial crunch faced by Pakistan is worsening by the day as theforeign exchange reserves are dipping fast amidst inordinate delay inrelease of $1.8 billion IMF tranche.
The resumption of 9th review of Pakistan-IMF programme review has beenpostponed owing to the impediments in calculation of the estimates of theflood damages and funds required for rehabilitation and reconstructionefforts.
Moreover, the Fund is not very receptive to the urging of Pakistanifinancial managers that they need more fiscal space to adjust to thewidespread devastation caused by the flooding and the Fund’s perspective isthat the underlying conditions causing recurring budgetary deficit have notmuch to do with the climate-induced calamity as it pertains to structuralimbalances within the financial makeup of Pakistani governance system andunless that is rectified and reformed, it would be self-defeating to keepon sinking more funds into Pakistan’s economy.
By the looks of it, however, Pakistani revenue authorities are doing theirutmost to increase revenue collection and so far they have becomesuccessful in doing so. It certainly is not an exercise in isolation as allassociated with the Federal Board of Revenue are putting in hardwork to meet the revenue targets set before them and currently it isreported that they have successfully exceeded the target set for the periodby Rs.8 billion by collecting Rs.2.688 trillion in the first five months ofthe current fiscal year.
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This is certainly a performance worth lauding as the revenue collection hasposted a growth of 15.3 per cent against Rs.2.330 trillion collected in thesame period last year.
It is all the healthier as just last month the collection fell short by 17per cent off the target. Moreover, compared with Rs.480 billion in the samemonth last year, the revenue collection posted a year-on-year growth of11.5 per cent.
