The executive board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has stressed the “sustained implementation” of the new $7 billion bailout package, as well as broadening the tax base.

The IMF’s Executive Board said this in a statement issued on Saturday, following its approval of the 37-month Extended Fund Facility (EFF) for Pakistan, under which it has disbursed a $1bn tranche.

The government had in July agreed to the deal — its 24th IMF payout since 1958 — in exchange for unpopular reforms, including widening its chronically low tax base.

“This programme should be considered the last program,” Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said in July when the loan deal was secured.

The finance ministry wrangled for months with IMF officials to unlock the new loan. It came on the condition of far-reaching reforms including hiking household bills to remedy a permanently crisis-stricken energy sector and uplifting pitiful tax........

© Dawn Business