The government has planned to impose additional taxes worth Rs 200 billion to comply with IMF conditions, also planning to discontinue the power sector subsidy and unleash sales tax on raw material of export sector, particularly textile sector.
There has been strong criticism on the governmentÂ’s policies from different segments and this step would lessen the PDMÂ’s governmentÂ’s popularity.
However, PML (N)’s Senior Vice President, Maryam Nawaz who returned to Pakistan last week has supported the government’s policies and asked the people to wait for the good results. Miftah Ismail, the former finance minister who is strong critic of Ishaq Dar’s economic policies has also supported the government’s act of going by the demands of IMF. He said, “we don’t have the choice but to implement IMF policies.”
He added that the government policies were now on the track. As per FBR sources, two draft ordinances have been prepared according to which there would be increase in withholding tax rates and regulatory duty on luxury items. International Monetary Fund (IMF) has demanded that there should be increase in the petroleum levy as there is estimated shortfall of Rs.300 billion under Petroleum Development Levy.
The PDM government delayed to go by the demands of IMF for about four months due to the political reasons but the international donor just refused to go back by even a single inch.
One of the demands of the IMF was to leave US dollar upon the mercy of open market which resulted very high movement of dollar against the rupee. Ishaq Dar, the finance minister was, however, not in favor of this step despite the strong opposition by IMF.
The industrialists of the country had a meeting with the CEO of the Trade Development Authority of Pakistan (TDAP) on Saturday to discuss the issues and asked the CEO of TDAP to convey their reservations to the Prime Minster.
On the other hand, PTI has asked in an official statement the finance to minister to resign for allegedly misleading the nation as people are suffering badly.