Government mulling salary delay?

According to a private news channel, the issuance of funds for federal government employee salaries and development projects may be delayed, but the Ministry of Finance Saturday categorically denied such rumours as “totally baseless and inaccurate”.

According to the ministry’s spokesperson, the news channel should have contacted the Finance Division’s spokesperson on this issue, while lamenting that the appropriate forum was not approached.

According to the statement, Pakistan remains on track to meet all its commitments under the International Monetary Fund (IMF) program, as evidenced by the smooth and successful completion of the Staff Level Agreement (SLA) of the first review, which indicates that Pakistan is on track to meet all its commitments.

The official also elaborated on the details of important fiscal highlights related to the availability of funds, adding that the finance division had already released the funds for both current expenditures (salary pensions and non-ERE) as well as development expenditures for the Q2 (second fiscal quarter).

It should be noted that the Planning, Development, and Special Initiatives (PD&SI) Division has accordingly approved funds to be allocated to line ministries for development expenditures.

It was stated in the statement that there had been no change to the release strategy by the Finance Division or Planning Division, as incorrectly reported by the particular channel.

Moreover, the statement highlights that the Finance Division has released all of the funds for the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) for the second fiscal quarter (Q2) and that the transfer of funds to beneficiaries is already in progress.

As well as this, all the funds committed to subsidising the power sector, in accordance with the requirements of the Circular Debt Management Plan (CDMP), have also been made available by the division.

The Finance Division of the Ministry of Finance has, in the meantime, ensured that the salary will be released to the Christian community before Christmas in order to stay true to tradition.

The statement made by the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) emphasized that the collection of revenue by the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) as well as the collection of NTR by other ministries is on schedule.

“Based on these facts, it is evident that the said news item was broadcast without any evidence and without taking the government’s viewpoint into consideration.