ISLAMABAD: The International Monetary Fund (IMF) staff, led by Nathan Porter, will travel to Pakistan between November 11-15 for a staff visit to discuss recent developments and Extended Fund Facility (EFF) programme performance to date.

Top officials revealed that this mission is not part of the first review under the $7 billion EFF, which will be no earlier than the first quarter of 2025.

Sources said during the visit, the IMF staff would hold meeting with the finance minister, chairman Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) and other concerned ministries including energy.

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The FBR has collected Rs877 billion during October 2024 against assigned target of Rs980 billion, reflecting a shortfall of Rs103 billion. The FBR has collected Rs3,440 billion during first four months of 2024-25 against the assigned target of Rs3,636 billion set for July-October of current fiscal year, reflecting a shortfall of Rs196 billion.

The IMF staff is expected to discuss the revenue shortfall and may ask the government for more measures to bridge the revenue gap. The government closed first quarter of current fiscal year 2024-25 with overall budget balance of Rs1.696 trillion equivalent to 1.4 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

Further, the government achieved a primary balance of Rs3.002 trillion, equivalent to 2.4 percent of GDP.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2024