International Monterey Fund (IMF) Assistant Director Adnan Mazari has expressed his dissatisfaction over the government’s performance in energy sector, and asked it to restructure power infrastructure.
Addressing a joint news conference along with Finance Minister Dr Abdul Hafeez Shakih, the IMF official asked the government to bring down its budget deficit and suggested more efforts in energy sector so that Pakistan could overcome its energy crises.
Mazari said that IMF could not afford more funds in energy sector so efforts should be made for poverty eradication and bringing investment in Pakistan. Dispelling the impression, Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh said that Pakistan had not requested to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a fresh loan programme.
He said that Pakistan enjoys strong relations with IMF and that the recent talks were held in a cordial atmosphere. The federal minister painted a rosy picture of the national economy and said that economy has shown better performance during the first four months of the current fiscal year 2011-12 and the trend was expected to continue during the rest of the year.
In a bid to ensure economic reforms agenda, the government was committed to find out solutions to the key constraints, being faced by the economy, he said. During the first four months of the current fiscal, nine billion rupees taxes has been collected which shows 28 percent increase as compare to the last corresponding year whereas remittance has reached $4.2 billion.
