ISLAMABAD
\nThe government has taken back the mini-budget, including the Tax Laws (Fourth) Amendment Bill, for the time being from the federal cabinet as difficulties increase for the Centre on the political front, The News reported.
\nThe publication stated that the government decided to consult with Prime Minister to devise a new strategy.
\nThe unveiling of the mini-budget turned out to be a disappointment for the incumbent government since the International Monetary Fund (IMF) staff turned down the government\u2019s proposal to convince the IMF that it would present a mini-budget through a presidential ordinance.
\nThis has put the revival of the IMF programme into a difficult situation because it wouldn\u2019t be possible if the Fund doesn\u2019t show flexibility in demanding the parliamentary approval for two key bills, including Tax Laws (Fourth) Amendment Bill and SBP\u2019s Autonomy Bill.
\nIn this scenario, the government has to explore all options once again to convince the IMF for the promulgation of a presidential ordinance for withdrawal of GST exemptions to fetch Rs350 billion into the national kitty on an annual basis because it might find it hard to pass such a chunk of the money bill with the support of its political allies.
\nThe IMF had sternly rejected the proposal for promulgation of the Presidential Ordinance in the past, but the government seems to be left with no option but to engage the IMF again to convince it. The government wants that the promulgation of the ordinance should be allowed till the upcoming budget and to withdraw GST exemptions as part of the next budget through Finance Bill 2022.
\nThe two bills are pending approval from Parliament without which the revival of the IMF programme will be simply impossible. A top official said that the cabinet could not consider the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) Autonomy Bill in Tuesday\u2019s meeting because the federal law minister was not present in the meeting.
\nSo the cabinet ratification on work finalised by the Cabinet Committee on Legislative Business could not be taken up. Secondly, the Tax Laws (Fourth) Amendment Bill was withdrawn because the government could not afford a backlash on it when the CPI-based inflation was already standing at 11.53% for November, 2021.
\nThe second thought surfaced after increasing difficulties emerged in the wake of a severe defeat in the local government elections in many parts of PTI\u2019s stronghold province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
\n\u201cPrime Minister Imran Khan has advised to withdraw the Tax Laws (Fourth) Amendment Bill in today\u2019s cabinet meeting and decided to devise a fresh strategy to tackle this issue. The government was perturbed at the recent political developments in the KP on account of its defeat,\u201d top official sources confirmed to The News on Tuesday.
\nThe official sources said that Prime Minister Imran Khan would soon hold a consultative meeting with Adviser to PM on Finance Shaukat Tarin and other members of the economic team to devise a fresh strategy to tackle these complex issues.
\nOne top official said that they were still making last-ditch efforts to meet the deadline of January 12, 2022, for meeting all prior actions placed by the IMF staff and holding of Fund\u2019s Executive Board meeting for completion of the Sixth Review and release of $1 billion tranche under $6 billion Extended Fund Facility.
\n\u201cWe will renegotiate with the IMF for seeking permission to promulgate Presidential Ordinance to abolish the GST exemptions. Pakistani authorities are now in Catch 22 situation, having no clue how to proceed further because without the IMF programme, the economic difficulties are going to multiply in coming months,\u201d concluded the official sources.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
ISLAMABAD The government has taken back the mini-budget, including the Tax Laws (Fourth) Amendment Bill, for the time being from the federal cabinet as difficulties increase for the Centre on the political front, The News reported. The publication stated that the government decided to consult with Prime Minister to devise a new strategy. The unveiling […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":234425,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[638,222,1999,1211],"class_list":{"0":"post-234403","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-top-news","8":"tag-cabinet","9":"tag-government","10":"tag-mini-budget","11":"tag-opposition"},"yoast_head":"\n