Home ›› 25 Mar 2023 ›› World Biz
A long-awaited loan agreement between Pakistan and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) will be signed once a few remaining points, including a proposed fuel pricing scheme, are settled, an IMF official confirmed on Friday.
Pakistan and the IMF have been negotiating since early February on an agreement that would release $1.1 billion to the cash-strapped, nuclear-armed country of 220 million people.
The latest issue is a plan, announced by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif last week, to charge affluent consumers more for fuel, with the money raised used to subsidise prices for the poor, who have been hit hard by inflation, which in February was at its highest in 50 years, reported Reuters.
The scheme is planning a difference of around 100 Pakistani rupees (35 U.S. cents) a litre between the prices to be paid by the rich and poor, according to the petroleum ministry.
Petroleum Minister Musadik Malik told Reuters on Thursday that his ministry had been given six weeks to work out the pricing plan. It would be not a subsidy but a relief programme aimed at helping the poor, he said.
But the IMF's resident representative in Pakistan, Esther Perez Ruiz, said the government had not consulted the fund about the fuel pricing scheme.
Ruiz, in a message to Reuters, confirmed a media report that a staff-level agreement would be signed once a few remaining points, including the fuel scheme, were settled.
The petroleum and finance ministries did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
