Dawn – Pakistan | 2025-10-09 02:35
According to a report by Dawn… • Another round of discussions may take place in Washington soon
• Islamabad must furnish verified estimates of flood-related losses, ensure provinces will absorb these costs from own resources
• Govt moves on asset declarations to meet IMF benchmarks
ISLAMABAD: An International Monetary Fund (IMF) staff mission on Wednesday concluded talks with Pakistani authorities on reviews of two lending programmes totalling $8.4 billion without announcing a staff-level agreement, though official channels insisted there was no immediate plan to burden taxpayers with fresh measures.
Sources said another round of discussions may take place on the margins of the World Bank-IMF annual meetings in Washington in the coming days to resolve the last-mile issues.
Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb is scheduled to depart for the United States later this week with a delegation that includes the finance secretary, the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) governor, and the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) chairman.
Officials said Islamabad would have to provide verified estimates of flood-related losses and ensure that provinces would absorb these costs from their own resources without compromising cash surplus commitments to the Centre. For the current fiscal year, Punjab is required to provide a cash surplus of Rs740bn, followed by Rs370bn by Sindh, Rs220bn by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and Rs185bn by Balochistan.
Sources said that, against this backdrop, the IMF mission did not hold a formal wrap-up meeting with the finance minister before leaving, although both sides met with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, given his recent engagements with the IMF managing director to discuss flexibility in light of the flood damage.
A select team of the IMF mission had reportedly called on the minister on Monday, the sources said.
The visiting team, led by mission chief Iva Petrova, did not issue a customary end-of-mission statement, and its representative office did not respond to requests for comment.
Official sources, however, claimed that the talks were “smooth” so far, and there was no immediate need for additional tax measures to bridge the shortfall, although the tax target might have to be revised depending on the first-quarter GDP data, due in the last week of December.
At that time, the question of fresh measures or changes in rates would become due with effect from Jan 1, 2026, to cover lapses in the first half of the fiscal year in view of the biannual nature of the review.
Civil servants to declare assets
Separately, the government on Wednesday notified draft amendments to the Sharing of Assets of Civil Servants Rules, 2023, to comply with the IMF’s demand for governance reforms, under which all Grade 17 and above public servants across federal, provincial and local level and state-owned enterprises would be required to file their electronic returns of assets and incomes for public review through the FBR.
The draft rules, however, exempted serving officers of the armed forces.
The FBR has invited public comments within seven days to comply with the IMF deadline. Under these rules, all public servants who include officers of federal or provincial governments or autonomous bodies, corporations and companies owned by such governments having Grade 17 or above would need to file an electronic declaration in the format agreed to by the SBP and FBR.
However, these declarations would not be publicly available, as the relevant banks would be required to ensure a pre-notified, secure, and single authorised email address that would be under the control and responsibility of the bank’s head of compliance for authorisation, use, and security of data.
The banks would share with the FBR the credentials of designated focal persons to ensure the secrecy of information. All required information would be transmitted in abridged form.
However, this requirement of electronic returns and declarations would not apply to people exempted under the National Accountability Ordinance, 1999.
According to the ordinance, this exemption applies to a “person who is a member of any of the armed forces of Pakistan except a person who is, or has been a member of the said forces and is holding, or has held, a post or office in any public corporation, bank, financial institution, undertaking or other organisation established, controlled or administered by or under the federal government or a provincial government or, notwithstanding anything contained in the Pakistan Army Act, 1952 (XXXIX of 1952) or any other law for the time being in force, a person who is a civilian employee of the armed forces of Pakistan”.
Published in Dawn, October 9th, 2025 complete report is on below link.
