December 15, 2022 (MLN): The implementation of Treasury Single Account (TSA) in all the Public Entities of the federal government is an ongoing process involving extensive consultations on scope, design, accounting, banking arrangements, IT infrastructure, Finance Division said in a clarification note issued on Wednesday.
A news story has been published in the national newspaper on December 10, 2022, claiming that the TSA deadline will be missed.
The story was primarily based on a draft report prepared by the IMF Technical Assistance Mission which visited Islamabad from October 3rd to 10th 2022. The news story contains incorrect data, wrong and baseless information, and misinterpretation of the facts and records, the statement added.
The process of TSA has not been slowed down as alleged in the news story.
“It is clarified that Finance Division with the technical support of the International Development Partners including IMF has undertaken significant structural reforms in the field of the public financial management in the Federal Government,” it read.
Implementation of TSA is one of such reform areas where the IMF has been providing comprehensive Technical Assistance for capacity building, design, scope, and execution in line with the International Best Practices. It is also highlighted that the subject newspaper story is based on an IMF report which is still in the draft stage and discussions are in progress between Finance Division and the IMF.
The IMF draft report has acknowledged major strides made by the government of Pakistan in the implementation of challenging public financial management reforms including TSA.
“This aspect has been conveniently ignored in the news story,” it noted.
Owing to the complexities involved in the implementation process, the IMF team has proposed various models and timelines for TSA.
Finance Division is in the process of evaluating these proposed models and timelines in consultation with all stakeholders.
While the government has agreed with the IMF to implement TSA, there is no end-December 2022 deadline to close all commercial bank accounts maintained by public sector entities and the Ministry of Defence and transfer money to the State Bank of Pakistan.
Further, no commitment has ever been by the government with IMF to close all commercial bank accounts maintained by the Public Sector Entities including OGRA and NHA. The figure of the cumulative balance of about Rs2.9 trillion is also incorrect.
The statement that the “Ministry of Finance is unaware of the ownership of 484 bank accounts” is also incorrect and tantamount to disinformation.
Complete information is available from the State Bank of Pakistan with regard to all the commercial bank accounts maintained by the federal as well as provincial government entities/organizations.
The commercial banks have been sharing full data with the SBP as per the provisions of the PFM Act, 2019.
Copyright Mettis Link News
Posted on: 2022-12-15T10:32:51+05:00
