Pakistan to pass key bills to meet IMF demands by mid-January — finance ministry

A general view of the Parliament House is pictured in Islamabad, Pakistan, on April 23, 2021. (AFP/File)

• Approval of the bills from parliament is pre-requisite to receive $1 billion loan tranche from IMF
• Finance ministry says there is no deadline from international lender to pass proposed legislation

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s finance ministry said on Sunday that it was confident to get two important bills approved from parliament by mid-January to fulfill the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) conditions to revive the stalled $6 billion loan program. 
The government on Thursday presented the much-awaited Finance (Supplementary) Bill 2021, commonly referred to as the mini-budget, in the National Assembly, ending tax exemptions on nearly 150 items as a prior action to receive around $1 billion loan tranche from the IMF. 
The IMF executive board will meet on January 12 to decide whether it should revive the stalled loan program, which the two sides entered in 2019 to limit the South Asian nation’s mounting debts and stave off a looming balance-of-payments crisis, in exchange for tough austerity measures. 
Five reviews of the program had been completed by March. The sixth review has been pending since June 2021. 
“We have presented the bills in parliament for discussion and debate, and hopefully we’ll get them passed by mid-January,” Muzzammil Aslam, a spokesperson for the Pakistani finance ministry, told Arab News on Sunday. 
The Finance (Supplementary) Bill was referred to the Senate standing committee on finance for discussion and recommendations on it, Aslam said, adding the committee was bound to return the bill with recommendations within 14 days. 
“There is no deadline from the IMF to pass the bills,” he said. “We are following the rules and procedures to get them through the parliament.” 
About the January 12 IMF board meeting, he said the board could take up Pakistan’s review as a supplementary agenda item anytime during the coming weeks. 
“This isn’t a big issue,” Aslam said. 
Earlier on Sunday, the finance ministry said that as soon as the prior actions were completed by Pakistan, which the government was pushing hard, the IMF board would consider them for approval. 
“IMF board can move whenever our actions are completed,” it said. 
About the State Bank of Pakistan (Amendment) Bill 2021, which is required to be passed separately by both houses of parliament, Aslam said the government was hopeful to get it passed too along with the finance bill by mid-January. 
“We have streamlined the state bank through the proposed legislation to make it an effective, robust and autonomous institution,” he added. 
The government introduced the legislation in March to grant unprecedented autonomy to the country’s central bank to meet the IMF demand. 
SBP Governor Reza Baqir had also defended the bill, saying it would help the country “get rid of the boom-bust cycles,” which happened every two to three years due to short-term economic policies.