PML-N-led govt agrees to IMF recommendations to cut fuel subsidies

PML-N-led govt agrees to IMF recommendations to cut fuel subsidies

Web Desk
April 24, 2022

PML-N-led govt agrees to IMF recommendations to cut fuel subsidies

The PML-N-led govt has agreed with International Monetary Funds’ (IMF) recommendations to cut fuel subsidies phase-wise, sources said.

Finance Minister Miftah Ismail, who is currently in Washington to hold talks with IMF executive directors, reportedly agreed to IMF recommendations to reduce fuel subsidies.

Sources further said that Miftah hinted to carry forward the IMF programme and to curb subsidies on the fuel and electricity in phases.

Meanwhile, the IMF said it has no objection to the Income Support Programme and added Pakistan can continue subsidies for the marginalised section of the society.

The IMF has also shown its consent to the continuation of the Sehat Card scheme, the sources said.

We’ll give you free consultancy services & coaching on Web 3.0 Miftah, but please don’t embarrass Pakistan like that next time 🙏🏻 https://t.co/jJjbpBU2O9

— Sayed Z Bukhari (@sayedzbukhari) April 23, 2022

Earlier, Pakistan Tehreek e Insaf (PTI) leader Zulfikar Bukhari on Sunday offered free consultancy services and coaching on Web 3.0 to Finance Minister Miftah Ismail, after the latter’s admission that he did not know about the third generation internet.

Miftah had stated this in response to a question at the Atlantic Council, an American think tank in the field of international affairs.

“We’ll give you free consultancy services & coaching on Web 3.0 Miftah, but please don’t embarrass Pakistan like that next time,” Zulfi Bukhari said in a tweet quoting video of the Atlantic Council.

The video is doing rounds on social media in which Miftah is asked about his opinion on emergence of Web 3.0 which the questioner thought is a 100 billion dollar export opportunity for Pakistani talent in next 20 years. Also mentioning about potential of digital currency, he asked what he thought about enabling the new economic opportunities for the Pakistanis.

Miftah blatantly and “shamelessly”, as described by some Twitteratis, said, “Let me just confess that I really don’t know what Web3 is.

“… I don’t really know so much about this, but I know that the fintech and new technology companies in Pakistan have attracted a lot of money last year and from a very low base. We want to have them flourish as much as we can. I don’t really know much that we can do to help them. I know a lot we can do to harm them. So I think as long as the government stays away from them that would help them.

“But there is a tendency in Pakistan. I will let them be there and let them play their own game and hopefully they will rise and keep the government away from them. That’s my short answer. But I am really not that educated on the fintech.”