ISLAMABAD: Former Finance Secretary Dr Waqar Masood is likely to be appointed as member of Monetary and Fiscal Policies Coordination Board in place of Dr Farrukh Iqbal, Director IBA, well-informed sources told Business Recorder.

Section 9B of State Bank of Pakistan Act, 1956 provides for establishment of a Monetary and Fiscal Policies Coordination Board with the following composition; (i) Federal Minister for Finance (Chairman); (ii) Federal Minister for Commerce or Secretary Commerce (member); (iii) Deputy Chairman Planning Commission (member); (iv) Governor SBP (member); (v) Secretary Finance (member) and; (vi) two eminent macro or monetary economists (members).

The Board is mandated to coordinate fiscal, monetary and exchange rate policies, ensure consistency in macro-economic targets of growth, take inflation and fiscal policies into account and determine credit requirements of the private sector, liquidity expansion and review the consistency of macro-economic policies and revise limits and targets set at the time of the formulation of the budget, keeping in view the latest development in the economy.

Dr. Farrukh Iqbal, Director IBA was appointed as member on the board with the approval of cabinet on October 12, 2018.

Finance Division has proposed that one of the following may be appointed as member of Fiscal Policies Coordination Board, in place of Dr Farrukh Iqbal, Director IBA due to his preoccupation with his other/ regular assignments; (i) Dr Waqar Masood, ex-Secretary Finance/economist ;(ii) Naveed Hamid, Professor of Economics at LUMS/Economist and; (iii) Dr S Akbar Zaidi, Executive Director, IBA/Economist. The government recently appointed Dr Waqar Masood as head of subsidy cell of Ministry of Finance.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2020

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