Ishaq Dar says all conditions of IMF's 9th review fulfilled

ISLAMABAD (92 News) - Finance Minister Senator Ishaq Dar presented the Finance Bill for Fiscal Year 2023-24 in the National Assembly on Friday.

In the budget speech, he said that all conditions of the 9th review of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) had been fulfilled. "We are trying to sign the staff level agreement with the IMF at the earliest," he declared.

He said that the country had avoided the default due to difficult decisions made by the government. "The country is going through the most difficult economic conditions. The former government is responsible for the difficult economic situation. It also harmed the IMF relations and increased the economic deficit," he added.

The minister said that the IMF is the top priority of the government. "The economy is heading towards stability after a difficult economic phase. The government is following the policy of protecting the state instead of politics," he declared.

He announced that the government had announced a 35% increase in the salaries of employees up to BS-16 and a 30% raise in the salaries of the employees above BS-17. He said that the government will increase the pension of government employees by 17.5% while the minimum wages have been fixed Rs30,000.