Chairman of National Business Group Pakistan, President Pakistan Businessmen and Intellectuals Forum, and All Karachi Industrial Alliance, and former provincial minister Mian Zahid Hussain said on Monday that IMF has no justification to stop lending after the revised budget and the imposition of new taxes on two and fifteen billion rupees. If the IMF does not give the loan, the fear of bankruptcy of the country will increase because other institutions and banks will provide loans to Pakistan only after the IMF loan, he said.
Mian Zahid Hussain said that basic changes had been made in the budget as per the demands of the IMF, and the government expects a positive decision from the international organisation in a few days.
Talking to the business community, the veteran business leader said that in these circumstances, negative rhetoric from the central leaders of a failed political party is condemnable.
The business leader said that the IMF program is ending in three days. Still, if this organisation wants, it can extend that date because the government has increased taxes by 215 billion rupees and reduced expenses by 85 billion rupees.
Apart from this, the proposed amnesty of 100,000 dollars received from overseas Pakistanis has been withdrawn, the ban on imports has been lifted, and the Benazir Income Support Program funding has been increased by Rs16 billion.
Mian Zahid Hussain further said that the government has announced to increase in the petroleum levy from Rs50 to Rs60. It may take some time to implement, but the effects of lifting the ban on imports will be visible after a few days because our system is full of loopholes, and the process is slow while holidays are also coming.
Currently, the cargo of four billion dollars is lying at the ports, while the central bank has only 3.54 billion dollars. To combat this situation, the government is trying to get immediate loans from various sources, including the Islamic Development Bank, because the IMF loan may be delayed, or we may have to wait for a new program if the current program expires.