Pakistan on Wednesday assured the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that it would approve a new action plan in two months aimed at reducing wastage in development spending through a better allocation of resources, slashing the list of ongoing schemes and centralising their approval process.
The 60-point action plan spanning two years has already been mutually endorsed by the IMF and Pakistan but it now requires the stamp of approval from the federal cabinet.
The Ministry of Planning briefed the IMF about the action plan and the steps taken so far. The IMF was assured that the cabinet would approve the plan by the end of December, said sources.
Negotiators also apprised the global lender about plans to separate tax policy from the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) functions, a move that had been initiated under the Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC).
During the seventh day of talks, the IMF took stock of the government’s commitments to implementing the new action plan under the Public Investment Management Assessment and Administrative Reforms of the tax system.
Unlike past practices, these meetings were also attended by interim Finance Minister Dr Shamshad Akhtar. Usually, the finance ministers join only policy-level talks, which are scheduled to begin from Monday.
Pakistan has agreed to bring drastic changes to its public investment policy, approval and implementation framework to bring an end to wastages, which are often the result of ill-conceived politically oriented projects, donor-designed schemes and lack of capacity and funding to implement these schemes.
