“A milestone was achieved.” “Indeed, inflation is the lowest in years…” “True, though economists reckon some skimming…”
“I resent the use of the word skim which is used for liquids – inflation is not a liquid, why are you laughing?”
“Let me quote from the International Monetary Fund document: the inflation expectation survey be aligned with best practices.”
“So? The reference is to expectation which is for the future not the current inflation rate, unless of course you are suggesting that we tend to align our expectations with supporting data?”
“The Punjab surplus miraculously appeared when the IMF team was here and the federal government then made the appropriate upgrade.”
“And what an upgrade it was! From negative to a surplus of Rs 40 billion – a milestone.”
“Indeed and Notification Maryam Nawaz (NMN) is now working on giving cheap loans to the poor, I think she mentioned the figure of Rs 1 crore……”
“Does NMN realise that Rs one crore is a very large sum today though give us a couple of more years under her able leadership and that would fizzle down to one lakh today and…wait…and is she aware that Uncle Shehbaz’s government has pledged to the IMF that it will not subsidise credit and that…”
“No.”
“No what?”
“I don’t think she is aware. And that’s OK in my book, remember Hafeez Sheikh, with the necessary qualifications to understand the IMF document and the one who signed off on the IMF package had not read the IMF document. If you recall, he denied that the Fund had referred to the need to change the National Finance Commission award in favour of the federal government…”
“That’s right, so has anyone in the Punjab cabinet…”
“Nope, and the question is: has anyone in the federal cabinet read it?”
“Not the Commerce Minister, he keeps asking for incentives that the government has pledged it will not extend and…”
“I propose a 27the constitutional amendment: to make it mandatory for federal and provincial cabinet members to read IMF documents…”
“Two things, first and more importantly the 27th amendment is already in the works and second even if your suggestion is passed as the 28 amendment then be sure it won’t be implemented.”
“I guess your observation has merit.”
Copyright Business Recorder, 2024
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