By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD :Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Tuesday announced that the United Arab Emirates (UAE) had agreed to roll over the payment of $2 billion due by Pakistan this month.
Securing external financing has previously been a key condition for the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to approve the $7bn bailout deal for Pakistan.
Last year, friendly countries such as China, UAE, and Saudi Arabia had helped the country successfully clinch the IMF programme by providing timely confirmation of necessary financing assurances — with the IMF’s fund disbursement tied to debt rollover confirmation from these countries.
While talking to cabinet members today, the prime minister said he met with UAE President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan while he was on a personal visit to Pakistan on Sunday.“In a one-on-one meeting, he said…there is a $2 billion dollar repayment due and we are extending this,” the premier said.
‘Have to approach IMF for electricity prices’
PM Shehbaz also said that the government will have to approach the IMF to reduce electricity prices in the country.
Under the $7 billion Extended Fund Facility (EFF) signed in September last year, the global money lender has asked Pakistan to impose a substantial levy on gas supply to industrial captive power plants (CPPs) to eliminate any cost-benefit between the grid power and their in-house electricity generation.
The country has to deliver on one of the major structural benchmarks that required gas disconnections to CPPs by the end of January 2025 to qualify for disbursement of the second of the seven $1bn tranches in March. The two sides will meet for the first biannual review in the second half of February. Meanwhile, Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb, in a press conference, said that the government was working on reducing its expenditure.
Speaking on the topic of “rightsizing” of the federal government, he said, “The expenses of the federal government are talked about — that you take taxes from us, what are the expenses of the federal govt? — and that is correct.”
