ISLAMABAD: In compliance of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz led Punjab govt has transferred Rs200 billion to the Federal Government to show surplus of Rs40 billion to secure the IMF loan program worth $7 billion, sources said on Friday.
The Finance Ministry has issued a surprising statement on Friday afternoon that it has revised its fiscal operation report of the first quarter of the current fiscal year. According to the report, the Punjab Govt has reported a budget surplus of nearly Rs40 billion.
Earlier, the Finance Ministry had reported in the original fiscal operation report that Punjab posted deficit of over Rs160 billion for the first quarter of the current fiscal year.
The Federal Ministry has accepted the views of province that it has achieve a provincial surplus of Rs40 billion during Q1 for FY 2024-25, said in the statement.
Punjab has played an important role for provincial surplus during recent years. It has estimated a provincial surplus of Rs630 billion as agreed the Fund. it added.
Following the correction, the federal government has closed the first quarter of the current fiscal year with a budget surplus of Rs1,896.01 billion, an increase of Rs200 billion. Earlier, the Finance Ministry had reported Rs1,696.01 billion budget surplus in the original fiscal operation report.
According to the original fiscal operation report, the Punjab had recorded a budget deficit of Rs160.16 billion in first three months of the current fiscal year.
The Sindh govt had reported a budget surplus of Rs131.09 billion, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa reported Rs103.75 billion surplus, and Balochistan government showed a provincial surplus of Rs85 billion during the three months.
It is important to mention here that IMF delegation had met with the provincial representatives Thursday (Yesterday). Sources said that the visiting delegation expressed its displeasure on Provinces’ failure to achieve the target of provincial surplus budget of Rs360 billion.
The provinces had presented the report that they had posted Rs160 billion surplus budget against the target of Rs342 billion for three months.