November 9, 2021 (MLN): Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin on Tuesday clarified that the news regarding Prime Imran Khan dropping his plans to call International Monetary Fund (IMF) Chairman Kristalena Georgieva are “completely flawed and baseless”.
“The news ‘PM drops plan to seek IMF chief’s help” is completely flawed and baseless. Such proposal was never under consideration,” tweeted the finance minister.
“The media reporters in the ‘Kamyab Jawan’ asked about PM call to IMF chief. My reply was that negotiations are in advance stage and no need for call.”
Earlier, a local news report had claimed that PM Khan had “dropped” plans to call IMF’s Ms. Georgieva to remove barriers currently facing revival of $6 billion Extended Fund Facility (EFF) deal.
Pakistan and the IMF are currently negotiating to revive the $6bn EFF facility but have reportedly hit a snag over amendments to the draft State Bank of Pakistan Amendment Bill, 2021.
As per reports, the government wants some changes in the draft bill to keep the option of borrowings from the central bank open and retaining finance secretary on the board of the SBP. During the approval of the EFF program, the IMF had asked the government to “submit to parliament, in consultation with IMF staff, amendments to the State Bank of Pakistan Act to address all end-December 2019 recommendations of the new 2019 Safeguards Assessment Report and the 2016 Technical Assistance Report on Central Bank Law Reform.”
The proposal was one of the structural conditionality of the IMF’s EFF program. The draft amendments aim to clip SBP’s quasi-fiscal activities and take away its mandate of price control through monetary policy.
