Parliament to be taken into confidence on IMF package: Hammad Azhar

Government has said it plans to take into confidence the parliament on the impending bailout package from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) soon.

Briefing the Senate on Thursday in response to a call-attention notice by PPP’s Senator Sherry Rehman, Minister of State for Revenue Hammad Azhar said that the government would soon brief the parliament and take into confidence regarding the terms and conditions of the bailout package agreed with the IMF.

He told the house that talks between the IMF and the government were ongoing since October, and the Fund’s team that had come to Pakistan for negotiating the terms was a ‘new team’.

“We are going in the right direction and the talks [with the IMF] are ongoing”, he said.

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Criticising Pakistan Peoples’ Party (PPP), whose senators have repeatedly criticised the government for not taking the parliament on board regarding the IMF bailout package, the minister said that the party during its tenure had never taken the parliament into confidence whenever it approached the IMF.

“PPP went to the IMF for bailouts seven times but they never took the parliament on board”, he claimed, “they never brought the details of bailout packages in the parliament”, he added.

He said that the government was planning to launch a unified online portal for facilitating the public regarding sales tax on services.

“The authority to collect the sales tax on services rests with the provinces, whereas that of the sales tax on goods rests with the federation”, he said.