Pakistan to surpass revenue target in FY22: Finance Minister

March 9, 2022 (MLN): Pakistan will surpass the revenue target set in the annual budget for the current financial year, finance minister Shaukat Tarin said on Wednesday.

Addressing a news conference in Islamabad, the minister said revenue would reach Rs6.1 trillion ($34.2 billion), compared to a target of Rs5.8 trillion, adding that if the petroleum subsidy was not given, the revenue collection would have surpassed the Rs 7 trillion mark by end of the current fiscal year.

PM Imran Khan last week announced an Rs250-300bn relief package, aiming to provide relief to the masses for the next four months until the announcement of Federal Budget FY23.

Under the relief package, PM announced a cut in petrol and electricity prices by Rs10 and Rs5 respectively despite a steep rise in the global oil market.

Minister hoped that the ongoing talks over the 7th review with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for release of next tranche would conclude successfully despite huge subsidy on the petroleum products and the electricity announced by Prime Minister Imran Khan.

"The IMF should not worry about it as neither we will take any loan nor increase our fiscal budget to manage the subsidy, but the required money would be managed by diverting dividends from shareholdings in state-owned companies (SOEs), cutting development funds from Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP), and additional revenues collected during the current fiscal year, while some of the funds would be diverted from Ehsaas Programme," he said.

"We have conveyed to them (IMF) that our people are already on roads against hike in prices of the basic commodities, therefore we have no option but to provide relief to the people," he added.

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