Islamabad, Pakistan – The Pakistani government has tabled a 170 billion rupee ($643m) finance bill to help the cash-strapped country secure funds from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to stave off default.
Presented before Parliament on Wednesday evening by Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, the measures include raising the general sales tax by a percentage point to 18 percent and follow hikes in the price of fuel and gas earlier this week as part of efforts to meet the global lender’s conditions for the release of a $1.1bn loan tranche, originally due in November 2022.
