IMF keen on reducing fiscal deficit of Pak railways

November 2, 2018: Federal Minister for Railways, Sh. Rasheed Ahmad met International Monetary Fund (IMF) delegation headed by Resident Representative IMF Pakistan Teresa Daben Sanchez, at Ministry of Railways on Thursday.

IMF delegation was interested in finding out measures to reduce fiscal deficit of Pakistan Railways and to reduce its dependency on government’s subsidy.

During discussion, the minister mentioned that the speed of train should be increased. He made it clear that Pakistan Railways can earn profit by increasing its freight sector.

“We want to increase freight trains’ number to 8 to 15”, he added.

He was very clear that ML I (Karachi-Peshawar) should be upgraded on priority.

He declared that right now Pakistan Railways has broad gauge but gradually it will be changed into standard gauge. He showed interest in constructing an extra standard gauge line at Karachi-Hyderabad.

On a question from IMF team on Public Private Partnership (PPP), he said that Pakistan Railways is open to PPP. He said that for improved working Pakistan Railways should make a consortium with various parties.

The meeting was also attended by M. Javed Anwar, Chairman and M. Yusuf, DG Planning.