There were intense speculations in the federal capital whether the visit of International Monetary Fund (IMF) team is a routine visit or it is owing to disparity between the data used to reach an agreement with the Fund and consolidated data of fiscal year 2018-19 released by Finance Division.
An official of Finance Ministry told Business Recorder that Jihad Azour, IMF Director, Middle East and Central Asia Department, will arrive in Islamabad today (Tuesday) and formal meetings would take place after his arrival. However, he added that informal technical level discussion was held on Monday and such meetings have been taking place regularly through video-conference as well.
The IMF teams, sources maintained, conduct staff level visits as part of their routine work with member countries to touch base, gather data, and do other tasks and these missions are not announced necessarily, as these are routine visits. The IMF Director is traveling within the region and would stop over to visit Pakistan. Adviser to Prime Minister Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh also stated in a press conference on Sunday last that Fund's director's visit to Pakistan was scheduled a month-and-a-half ago and is "routine visit" and there was nothing unusual.
Sources maintained that IMF team would conduct meetings in Islamabad and Karachi. The IMF team led by its director would also have an interactive session with the Finance Committee of the National Assembly headed by Asad Umar where the members would convey their perspective on the ongoing Fund program.
The IMF has also emphasized to mobilize domestic tax revenue on Friday during a press briefing by its Director Communications Department, Gerry Rice when asked if Pakistan can be advised to cut subsidies and development spending to keep the primary deficit in line. He stated that Pakistan needs to mobilize domestic tax revenue to fund much-needed social and development spending and placing debt on a firm downward trend.
Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) faced a Rs 64 billion shortfall in tax collection during the first two months which makes the tax collection target of Rs 5.5 billion for the current fiscal year more challenging for the government.