The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has expressed reservations over Pakistan’s federal development programme on Saturday. IMF has said that Pakistan’s development programme has become out of bounds and demanded review of the federal development programme. The New York based lender in its public investment management assessment report stated that the completion of the country’s all development projects would require 10.7 trillion rupees. “The funding required for all development projects has been 14-times above than the development budget”, according to the report. “The government has launched 2.3 trillion new development projects in the last budget,” IMF said. The lender has stressed for technical assessment before approval of development projects.

The IMF has suggested a five-year policy for selection of development projects. “A mechanism to release funds for projects should be prepared and published,” it said. Pakistan and International Monetary Fund (IMF) were reached to a staff-level agreement on the first review under Pakistan’s Stand-By Arrangement (SBA) at the conclusion of delegation-level talks between the two sides in Islamabad. The agreement is subject to the approval of IMF’s Executive Board after approval around US$700 million will be available bringing total disbursements under the program to almost US$1.9 billion.

 
Credit: Independent News Pakistan (INP)