Uploading the first review report on the International Mone-tary Fund (IMF) website on the weekend (Saturday), eight days after the Board approved the release of the next tranche, three days after the tranche was released, indicates the veracity of the general perception that was noted in the report “the 37-month Extended Arrangement under the Extended Fund Facility (EFF), approved on September 25, 2024, is on track.

All seven Quantitative Performance Criteria’s and five of eight Indicative Targets were met at end-December” – the period under consideration.

The Fund then proceeded to reaffirm the appropriateness of its program design by stating that “continued strong and timely program implementation remains critical to safeguard recent hard-won economic stability and support sustainable growth.” It was indeed hard won, but the price was paid by the general public and therefore what is critical is for the IMF to revisit its program design in light of its three majorly inaccurate assumptions given that negotiating skills incorporating an inbuilt in-house out-of-the-box reforms have not yet been forthcoming from the Pakistani economic team leadership.

First and foremost, the Fund expressed satisfaction at the full execution of the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) budget, which included a 27 percent nominal increase over last fiscal year after raising the benefit from 10,500 to 13,500 rupees for three months – an increase that the Fund maintains included inflation adjustment (which was understated through data manipulation – clearly and unambiguously evident when petroleum prices were kept constant the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics indicated a decline no doubt in reference to the actual import cost rather than the price payable by the public), a one-time additional adjustment to increase the stipend’s generosity level (the use of the word generosity anathema to the Pakistani public as it was compelled to pay indirect taxes to the tune of 75 to 80 percent of all Federal Board of Revenue collections whose incidence on the poor is greater than on the rich) while absorbing an additional 700,000 families into the program, bringing total enrolment to 10 million this fiscal year (an........

© Business Recorder