Pakistan shouldn’t be dealing with default danger, the nation’s junior finance minister has stated, amid claims by former prime minister Imran Khan that default is staring the cash-strapped nation and there’s a delay in formal talks with IMF on the ninth evaluation of USD 7 billion mortgage programme.

Minister of State for Finance and Revenue Aisha Ghaus Pasha assured the nation on Friday within the National Assembly when Mussarat Rafiq Mahesar of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) put a direct query to her, “If Pakistan goes to default?” Dawn newspaper reported on Saturday.

There are also reports about delays in formal talks with the IMF on the ninth review of the USD 7 billion loan programme.

“…there is no such possibility. Yes, we were worried when we took over the government [in April] because at that time the IMF programme was suspended and the avenues of getting external finances were closed for us,” said the minister.

However, she claimed, the situation had improved a lot after the government took some “very difficult decisions” and revived the IMF programme.

Pasha said it was a fact that the country in the past was unable to borrow money from other multilateral and bilateral agencies and even the commercial market to finance its external needs due to the suspension of the IMF programme.

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However, she pointed out that after the successful seventh and eighth reviews of the IMF programme, Pakistan had no immediate threat of default. Instead, she claimed, the country’s exports had improved, international remittances had been coming and international direct funding was getting higher.

The minister acknowledged that Pakistan was now on the IMF’s monitor and dedicated to its programme.

In response to a different query, Pasha knowledgeable the home that at current Pakistan’s 50 per cent financial system was estimated to be undocumented. However, whereas quoting totally different analysis research, she stated the scale of Pakistan’s casual financial system was estimated to be 35.6 per cent.

According to the World Bank, she stated, the casual sector was one-third of the nation’s GDP (Gross Domestic Product).

She stated efforts had been being made to boost the scale of the formal financial system, including {that a} well-structured taxation coverage and efficient enforcement thereof might play an necessary function in reaching this goal. The authorities was making all-out efforts to carry reforms to the tax assortment system in a bid to generate most revenue to create services for taxpayers.

The minister confused the necessity for growing a civic sense in each Pakistani in order that she or he ought to pay due taxes truthfully.

She lamented that Pakistan’s tax-to-GDP ratio was solely 9pc, which was thought of to be low on this planet.

Dawn additionally reported that in a written reply to a query from one other PPP lawmaker Shamim Ara Panhwar, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar knowledgeable the home that the overall worth of the nation’s international trade reserves stood at USD 13,721.9 million on November 4. Giving a break-up, he stated, the international trade reserves held by the State Bank stood at USD 7,957.9m and by business banks at USD 5,764m.

Responding to questions concerning the nation’s international debt, Minister for Economic Affairs Sardar Ayaz Sadiq informed the home that the earlier Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf authorities had taken USD 47,105.85m loans between August 2018 and April 2022.