ISLAMABAD According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the Pakistani authorities met the requirements of the Stand-By Arrangement (SBA) in terms of overall performance against the quantitative performance criteria (QPCs), indicative targets (ITs), and structural benchmarks (SBs) by the end of December.

The authorities met all seven quantitative Performance Criteria (PCs) for end-December 2023, according to the Fund's report titled "Second and final review under the SBA." These included the floors on (i) net international reserves of the SBP and (ii) targeted cash transfer spending, as well as the ceilings on (iii) net domestic assets of the SBP and (iv) the SBP's FX swap/forward book, (v) net government budgetary borrowing from the SBP, (vi) the primary budget deficit of the general government, and (vii) government guarantees. Additionally, they satisfied the ongoing PCs for (i) the government receiving no new SBP credit, and (ii) the absence of any arrears in external public payments.

Indicative objectives (ITs): The floors on (i) budgetary spending on health and education; (ii) FBR net tax collections; and the limits on (iii) net accumulation of tax refund arrears and (iv) power sector payment arrears were all fulfilled by the authorities by the end of December 2023.

Benchmarks for structures (SBs): The SBs on the establishment of a plan to fortify the SBP's internal control systems in lending operations, the semi-annual gas tariff adjustment determination, and the BISP inflation adjustment were all satisfied.

The ongoing SBs on avoiding new preferential tax treatments or exemptions, awarding no further tax amnesties, and keeping an average premium between the interbank and open market rates of no more than 1.25 percent were all fulfilled as well.

In order to bring legislation into compliance with standards, work is still being done to alter four specific SOE laws (missed SB, end-November 2023) – the timeframe of its adoption is dependent on the recently seated National Assembly.