Pakistan’s economic crunch is worsening day by day, claims stunning report
Shares
The financial crunch faced by Pakistan is worsening by the day as the foreign exchange reserves are dipping fast amidst inordinate delay in release of $1.8 billion IMF tranche.
The resumption of 9th review of Pakistan-IMF programme review has been postponed owing to the impediments in calculation of the estimates of the flood damages and funds required for rehabilitation and reconstruction efforts.
Moreover, the Fund is not very receptive to the urging of Pakistani financial managers that they need more fiscal space to adjust to the widespread devastation caused by the flooding and the Fund’s perspective is that the underlying conditions causing recurring budgetary deficit have not much to do with the climate-induced calamity as it pertains to structural imbalances within the financial makeup of Pakistani governance system and unless that is rectified and reformed, it would be self-defeating to keep on sinking more funds into Pakistan’s economy.
By the looks of it, however, Pakistani revenue authorities are doing their utmost to increase revenue collection and so far they have become successful in doing so. It certainly is not an exercise in isolation as all associated with the Federal Board of Revenue are putting in hard work to meet the revenue targets set before them and currently it is reported that they have successfully exceeded the target set for the period by Rs.8 billion by collecting Rs.2.688 trillion in the first five months of the current fiscal year.
This is certainly a performance worth lauding as the revenue collection has posted a growth of 15.3 per cent against Rs.2.330 trillion collected in the same period last year.
It is all the healthier as just last month the collection fell short by 17 per cent off the target. Moreover, compared with Rs.480 billion in the same month last year, the revenue collection posted a year-on-year growth of 11.5 per cent.
