Miftah Ismail debunks reports claiming postponement of IMF program

Finance Minister tweeted on Monday that “there is no truth” to the media reports claiming the postponement or delay in the IMF program “due to some anti-corruption law”. “The IMF program is on track” he added. In his tweet, he shared link to the report by Global Village Space regarding the postponement of IMF program.

I have been reading with some amusement all the tweets and stories about IMF program being postponed or delayed due to some anti-corruption law. There is no truth to it. The IMF program is on track. https://t.co/6c0MNvQ0g3

— Miftah Ismail (@MiftahIsmail) July 4, 2022

Earlier in the day Global Village Space, citing online media reports, had claimed that the negotiations between IMF and the government of Pakistan regarding the resumption of the Extended Fund Facility have once again been stalled due to an impasse over anti-corruption laws and fuel and energy prices.

Global Village Space had reported the delay in the IMF program based on a news report from The News claiming that anti-corruption measures are a bone of contention between the government of Pakistan and IMF. The News reported that IMF seeks to include the strengthening of anti-corruption measures in the list of prior actions, however, the PDM government has shown unwillingness towards the proposal.

Moreover, several other reports were also making rounds on internet regarding the postponement of IMF program as mentioned by the Finance Minister in his tweet.

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Pakistan entered the current IMF program in June 2019. Since then getting IMF approval for each tranche has been an upheaval task for Pakistan due to the tough conditions of IMF. The completion of 7^th review under the Extended Fund Facility have been stalled for a few months now. However, Finance Minister Miftah Ismail announced on June 28 that Pakistan had received the Memorandum of Economic and Fiscal Policies (MEFP) from the IMF for the combined seventh and eighth reviews. It was further claimed that Pakistan would receive the two tranches at once in the last week of July of the first week of August.

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