Islamabad: Finance Minister Ishaq Dar revealed that almost 90 percent of pledges made by international community at donors’ conference in Geneva for flood-hit Pakistan were project loans that will be rolled out over next three years. During press conference alongside Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and other members of Cabinet, Dar said that $ 8.7 billion of pledges were loans. He did not reveal what terms of these loans were. However, Prime Minister said, “We expect terms to be lenient”. Dar highlighted that project loan financing had already crossed $ 8 billion, which included commitments from Islamic Development Bank, Asian Development Bank, Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank World Bank.

“I am not incorporating pledge made by Saudi Development Bank on purpose here because it is not clear whether their announcement of $ one billion pertains to programme lending or project loan,” Dar said. Responding to a question on how soon he expects these pledges to turn into actual inflows, premier said that depended on “us”. These pledges will not solve Pakistan’s immediate dollar liquidity crisis as is being touted by some government officials, according reports.

Dar talked about meeting he had with IMF team on sidelines of Geneva moot, revealing that discussions over already delayed ninth review for release of $ 1.2 billion revolved around government’s ability to meet revenue targets previously determined for ongoing fiscal year after Federal Board of Revenue fell short in December. This gap in revenue collection was result of high court invalidating Super Tax imposed by government in June last year, according to Dar. He said that his team informed IMF that Pakistan could recover revenue shortfall in staggered manner after Supreme Court ruled on Super Tax.

Published in The Daily National Courier, January, 12 2023

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