The Pakistan Economy Watch (PEW) said on Sunday that the tough conditions of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) will deal a death blow to the country’s weakened economy.
International lenders are not concerned about the development of Pakistan, which has been addicted to foreign loans since Ayub Khan’s era without any positive outcome,” said a PEW official.
PEW President Murtaza Mughal said, “The foreign loans have weakened the economy, eroded the currency, decreased the buying power of the masses and have promoted the interests of the elite.”
Pakistan, a country rich in natural and human resources, has become a laboratory for lenders who are finding new ways to enslave a nation, he said.
Dr Mughal said that those claiming to have taken the IMF loan on their own terms were misguiding the masses as “beggars can not be choosers”, adding that their agenda was exposed by the IMF’s insistence on increasing the power and gas tariff, strict monetary policy, reduction in the powers of the central bank, additional taxes for the poor and low tax for the elite.
He said the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) had failed to achieve the tax collection target of Rs 295 billion for July and August despite taking Rs 10 billion from different companies in advance and stopping refunds worth Rs 15 billion. The failure to achieve the target would provide an opportunity to the IMF to force the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N)-led government to further burden the masses.
Dr Mughal said many believed that the current monetary policy has been merely announced by the State Bank of Pakistan governor and was actually designed by the IMF.
“The government which has failed to safeguard the life and property of the masses does not have the right to collect taxes,” he said.