ISLAMABAD: State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) Governor Jameel Ahmed, Thursday, expressed the hope that Pakistan and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) would reach the staff level agreement (SLA) soon.
On the conclusion of Public Accounts Committee (PAC) meeting to review the Finance Division (Audit Report 2023-24) at the Parliament House on Thursday, the SBP governor was responding to a media query on the timeframe for reaching the SLA.
However, both the secretary Ministry of Finance and the governor SBP did not give any timeframe of signing of the SLA.
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Ahmed stated that the virtual meetings between the government and the IMF on policy discussions will continue.
The SBP governor said that remittances target has been revised for the current fiscal year to $36 billion.
He said the GDP growth rate is expected to be 2.5 to 3.5 per cent during the current fiscal year.
The current account deficit target for the current fiscal year has also been reduced, said Ahmad.
The inflation rate may remain at seven per cent during the current fiscal year, he added.
During the committee meeting, the SBP governor stated that the SBP give assessment to the Finance Division at the prevailing exchange rate at the start of the financial year. Multiple factors have an impact on the exchange rate during the fiscal year including inflation and POL prices, and market sentiments also play a very important role.
Ministry of Finance Secretary Imdadullah Bosal informed the committee that the exchange rate is being set at the time of federal budget.
The Finance Ministry can review the exchange rate on a quarterly basis or six months basis in consultation with the SBP.
On the audit objection of payment of honoraria to officers/staff involved in annual budget exercise without approved policy, Bosal said that the Finance Ministry will present the new honoraria policy before the Cabinet.
The honoraria policy is being implemented at the time of budget execution. This honoraria is not limited to the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) employees, but employees of 50-60 entities take benefit of this honoraria.
Under the new honoraria policy, 45 per cent of the employees of the relevant departments would get four types of honoraria.
It included performance based honoraria, additional honoraria and special honoraria.
The PAC members objected that why the honoraria is paid in the presence of overtime payment policy for the government employees?
The finance secretary stated that the prime minister directed the Finance Division to place a policy on honoraria before the federal cabinet.
In compliance with these directives, the Finance Division submitted an honoraria policy before the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet.
The Pay Roll System runs on 21st of each month, whereas, the budget honoraria are usually approved in the last week of June of each financial year, thus, it is not possible to draw the honoraria through Pay Roll System of the AGPR.
Therefore, the AGPR approves cash payment through DDO in the last days of closing of the financial year.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2025
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