As the review talks between the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the government are in progress, the former’s concerns over external financing gap persist, reported 24NewsHD TV channel on Tuesday.
Sources in the finance ministry told 24News TV channel that the government would have to allay the Fund’s concerns over the gap.
They, however, said that the government was optimistic that it would be able to remove international money lending organization’s reservations over it.
Similarly, they added, the IMF would also have to be satisfied that the government would achieve tax collection targets this financial year (FY).
Sources revealed it had been estimated that $2.50 billion would be saved by bringing down the current account deficit.
They disclosed that this FY the deficit was expected to remain $4 billion instead of $6.5 billion.
Similarly, they added, it had been estimated that the country’s imports would remain $5 billion less than the target set for this year, thus causing a setback to the Federal Board of Revenue’s (FBR) efforts to meet the tax collection target.
In other words, sources explained, imports would stand at $54 billion against the target of $58.7 billion.
They went on to say that this year the country would be able to achieve the export target of $30 billion.
Furthermore, they informed, remittances would be over $30 billion this FY.
Sources told 24News that the government would be able to achieve 21 per cent inflation target.
And last but not the least, the government was likely to achieve the economic growth rate of 3.5 percent.
Reporter: Waqas Azeem