Islamabad:
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has launched a technical assistance mission at Pakistan’s request to improve budget management and address persistent statistical gaps in fiscal data.
According to government sources, the mission will conduct a detailed review of Pakistan’s financial system, laws, procedures and data systems for about two weeks.
A four-member delegation headed by Miss Nino Chelshvili from the IMF’s financial affairs department has reached Islamabad, which will hold talks with the federal and provincial authorities until November 21.
The objective of the mission is to strengthen the management of financial data in Pakistan and to promote data-based decision-making in budgeting.
Sources said the IMF mission will review all aspects of the budget, including disbursement of funds, issuance and reporting.
During this time, there will be a detailed discussion on issues related to public finance management laws, financial data strategy, internal control and treasury management.
According to the Ministry of Finance, in the first quarter of this fiscal year, a statistical difference of 448 billion rupees was revealed between the federation and the provinces, which includes the difference of 93 billion rupees of the federal government and 354 billion rupees of the provinces.
While the difference of 209 billion rupees in Punjab, 47 billion rupees in Sindh, 33 billion rupees in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and 66 billion rupees in Balochistan has been reported.
According to sources, the IMF commission will also make recommendations regarding debt management, tax and non-tax revenue reporting and compliance with international standards of data governance.
The mission comes at a time when Pakistan and the IMF are finalizing the Governance and Corruption Diagnostic Report, the publication of which has been made a condition before the December meeting of the IMF Board.
