Miftah Ismail says he is hopeful that the Extended Fund Facility of International Monetary Fund (IMF) will be reviewed
ISLAMABAD: (UrduPoint/Pakistan Point News-June 20th, 2022) Federal Minister for Revenue and Finance Miftah Ismail Monday claimed that the stalled Extended Fund Facility (EFF) of International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) would be revived within a day or two.
The Finance Minister said he was hopeful that the programme would be revived.
He expressed these words while talking to the journalists on Monday.
The uncertain situation about revival of the fund’s programme has depreciated the rupee against the Dollar.
The finance minister told journalists that the government aims at taxing the wealthy and providing relief to the poor through the budget for the fiscal year 2022-23.
“IMF has no relation with the increase in salaries. Also, the tax exemption to the people earning below 1.2 million [annually] will remain in place,” the finance minister said.
The authorities in the finance ministry were expected to conclude the staff-level agreement by Sunday (June 19) on the basis of revenue and expenditure measures that could deliver next year’s Primary budget — the difference between revenues and expenditures, excluding interest payment — in Rs152 billion surplus.
The latest reports suggest that the Fund still has reservations over Rs9.5 trillion expenditures projected by the authorities for the next fiscal year. The IMF said that the revenue measures in the budget were also insufficient to deliver slightly over Rs7 trillion target.
The government took the toughest measures to end fuel subsidies and hiked the POL (petrol, oil, lubricants) prices up to unprecedented levels in order to convince the Fund to revive the programme. But the Fund is still insisting on doing more after knowing that Islamabad had become a desperate borrower just because the foreign Currency reserves depleted.
Miftah, talking about the proposed taxes on property in Senate Standing Committee on Finance, said that once construction begins on an empty plot, it will be exempted from taxes.
“Lay one brick on the empty land and the taxes will be lifted. But we will not impose a tax on anyone who has not acquired the possession of a plot or has not received the permission to start construction on it,” he said.
The finance minister said if a person has been granted permission to start construction on a piece of land and they still do not begin building something on it, then they will have to pay the tax.
In the coalition government’s first budget, the finance minister proposed a 15% capital gains tax on immovable property for a one-year holding period, which will be reduced by 2.5% for every additional year.
