ISLAMABAD: An Inter­n­ational Monetary Fund (IMF) mission led by Iva Petrova held a formal kick-off meeting with Pakistan’s economic team, headed by Finance Minister Muha­mmad Aurangzeb, to review the implementation of the $7bn Extended Financing Facility (EFF) and the $1.1bn Resilience & Sustainability Facility (RSF).

The programme’s performance as of end-June 2025 — the period under review — has been mixed. The start of the next review period, ending December this year, has also been off the mark, particularly in revenue collection. The two sides now have to agree on corrective measures during their dialogue to meet the next biannual targets.

The opening session was attended by key economic stakeholders, including the State Bank of Pakistan governor, finance secretary and chairman of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR).

While power sector benchmarks for the end-June 2025 period were comfortably met, revenue collection fell short by about Rs1.2 trillion — almost 1pc of GDP — in the last fiscal year, and the first two months of the current fiscal year have shown similar shortfalls.

The mission will remain in Pakistan for almost two weeks and will also hold forward-looking discussions with the authorities to push for faster........

© Dawn Business