![\"Shaukat-Tareen-IMF-demand-to-increase-electricity-tariff-is-unjustified-Finance-Minister-rapidnews-dailyrapid\"](\"https:\/\/dailyrapidnews.com\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/Shaukat-Tareen-IMF-demand-to-increase-electricity-tariff-is-unjustified-Finance-Minister-rapidnews-dailyrapid.jpg\")
<\/p>\nFederal Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin has said that it was unjustified for the International Monetary Fund to force Pakistan to increase its electricity tariff and that they would review the programme.<\/p>\n
He criticized the IMF for setting conditions that in his opinion have been affecting Pakistan\u2019s economy negatively. On the IMF instructions, Pakistan promised to increase taxes by a massive Rs1.272 trillion and jack up electricity rates by almost Rs4.97 per unit in the remaining three months of this current fiscal year. The IMF said it was necessary to make electricity more expensive because swelling circular debt has been dragging the economy down.<\/p>\n
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He said that Pakistan\u2019s economic wheel has not been moving and an increase in the power tariff was only increasing corruption.<\/p>\n
\u201cInflation is rising day by day due to the increase in the electricity tariff,\u201d said the finance minister.<\/p>\n
Islamabad had\u00a0signed the 39-month\u00a0EFF or\u00a0bailout program with the IMF to avert sovereign default because of a\u00a0balance-of-payments crisis in 2019. The program will\u00a0cost Pakistan $180\u00a0million in interest payments at less than 3% to be paid in 10 years. This is\u00a0a cheaper financing option than market-based loans, but it\u00a0comes with certain conditions.<\/p>\n In our case, these conditions include reforms in the energy sector, broadening the tax net, market-based exchange rates and restructuring of government-owned companies that are in loss.<\/p>\n Pakistan\u2019s performance on these reforms is\u00a0reviewed every quarter during the program. Subject to satisfactory performance, the IMF releases more funds.\u00a0Pakistan had successfully\u00a0completed the\u00a0first review of the bailout program in 2019. Following the review,\u00a0the IMF dispatched a second tranche of $452 million.<\/p>\n Earlier this year, the IMF announced the program has resumed. After completing the second review, the fund said that Pakistan\u2019s performance has been satisfactory. Policies critical to supporting the economy and saving lives and livelihoods have been implemented.<\/p>\n As part of the conditions, Pakistan has raised electricity prices to contain inter-corporate debt in the energy sector.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Federal Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin has said that it was unjustified for the International Monetary<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10081,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10079","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pakistan"],"yoast_head":"\n