Islamabad: The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has rejected the Pakistan government's claim of having met all conditions agreed upon to release funds. The authorities of the cash-strapped nation and the global financial body have already reached an agreement to facilitate a loan.
The deal was signed in 2019 to provide $6 billion after the government fulfilled some conditions. Recently, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Finance Minister Ishaq Da have been repeatedly claiming that they have met all the conditions. As the country fell further into an economic crisis, they claimed that there is nothing holding back the IMF from releasing the money.
A statement from the IMF on Friday said that the global body is negating the claim with respect to meeting all prior actions necessary to complete the ninth review.
The ninth review for the $1.2 billion loan has been delayed for seven months.
The Express Tribune newspaper quoted Nathan Porter, the IMF Mission Chief to Pakistan, as saying: "The IMF continues to work with the Pakistani authorities to bring the 9th review to a conclusion once the necessary financing is in place and the agreement is finalised." The report said that the face-to-face talks with the Pakistani authorities ended inconclusively.
"In addition, the IMF supports the authorities in the implementation of policies in the period ahead, including in the technical work to prepare the fiscal 2024 budget, which is to be passed by the National Assembly before end-June," he added.
Since the government does not have a credible financing plan for the July-December period of the next fiscal year, Pakistan also needs to arrange funds to repay the loans during the first half of the next fiscal year. The external debt repayments, including interest, for the July-December period amount to $11 billion, said the Finance Ministry sources.
Pakistan needs over $4 billion to repay international creditors - the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, Saudi Fund for Development, Islamic Development Bank, and Chinese commercial banks - during the first half of the next fiscal year.