PM's latest directives

In a formal televised address to the nation Prime Minister Imran Khan announced the establishment of Prime Minister's fund dedicated to dealing with the Coronavirus in National Bank of Pakistan (NBP). Critics who are dishing this proposal as one which was the usual modus operandi of previous administrations during natural calamities with limited success (given that private charities far outpaced the government in delivery till such a time as the armed forces became involved in relief and rehabilitation work) need to understand the critical difference in this proposal: a depositor to this NBP account would not be asked any questions. That is, the source of funds would not be questioned by the FBR or NAB or any other agency. Furthermore, should the depositor decide to declare this donation in his tax return, he/she would be entitled to 'tax relief' (tax credit/rebate). In other words, the contributors to this fund shall enjoy immunity to the extent of their contribution. We presume that the government has announced this step with full realization of sensitivities of the FATF and IMF and may even have sounded them out and is confident of their going along with this step.
In his speech, the prime minister cited the huge amounts that developed economies have announced to provide relief to the people and support their economies. He referred to the dollars 2 trillion stimulus/relief package that the US government has instituted and commented that it is with great difficulty that his government could announce relief measures to the tune of dollars 8 billion, a paltry sum in comparison. The dire straits that our economy is in, is well known and we are in an IMF support programme for this reason. We realize that multilaterals including the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as also the FATF would be allergic to any immunity or amnesty as it militates against efforts to curb money laundering and terrorism finance. We are also mindful that Pakistan is still on Financial Action Task Force's (FATF's) grey list and has pledged to meet all FATF identified conditions by June this year or else face the prospect of being placed on the black list that would dry up all inflows into the country. In other words, under normal circumstances any attempt to announce another immunity/amnesty scheme would be viewed as a deliberate attempt to roll back from its commitments to the FATF.
Although these are not normal times anymore and the existing extraordinary situation may necessitate the need for taking some extraordinary decisions, the government will still be required to seek a formal or explicit reprieve from both the IMF and the FATF before it decides to take the amnesty path. Any amnesty scheme which clearly stems from IMF-FATF acquiescence may address individuals and businesses at rates twice that applied to the previous two amnesty schemes launched by PML-N and PTI governments as we have reasons to believe that a sizeable number of individuals did not avail the previous two amnesties in full measure and are facing recovery proceedings on undeclared foreign assets that have come to the knowledge of the FBR under the OECD automatic Exchange of Information Treaty. They would surely welcome an opportunity to pay 20 percent of their asset value to the government to save their assets and the government would receive substantial sums in much needed revenue and that too in foreign exchange that would boost revenue and forex reserves in these critical times.