Poor government, lavish expenses
Ishaq Dar, on assuming charge of Finance Ministry on 7th June 2013, promised that the PML-N government would not bring any mini budgets. He violated his resolve with impunity by…
Petroleum and products: The economics behind taxes
It is extremely unfortunate that government after government endorses the seriously flawed tax system in the country irrespective of its commitments when in opposition; and cites higher tax collections as…
The IMF came a calling
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) mission chief for Pakistan Harald Finger arrived in Pakistan for the final day of the seventh review and thereafter held a joint press conference with…
Budget 2015-16: What can we expect?
There is understandably intense activity before the budget is announced in the Ministry of Finance with all the stakeholders (private as well as autonomous/public) and the tax collecting arm of…
Budget buzz
By most accounts, this year’s budget is promising to be a bit of a non-event, even though some rather extraordinary things are happening in the run-up. The main reason for…
Holding IMF accountable
The IMF has recently issued yet another congratulatory review of Pakistan’s “performance” under the current Fund programme, the country’s twelfth since 1988. The statement issued after the sixth review informs…
The IMF programme interregnum
Completion of the fourth quarterly review by the IMF has been delayed now for more than a month. What are the reasons for the delay? Is it due to the…
The IMF targets
The IMF has just released the report on the fourth and fifth review of the EFF with Pakistan. This review also contains projections of the economic outcome in 2014-15. As…
MPS: overt reluctance?
The State Bank of Pakistan's decision to cut policy rate by 50 basis points to 9.5 percent appears to be in line with what BR Research was expecting - a…
An avoidable collapse
After Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry's departure from the Supreme Court (SC), we haven't seen the SC initiating any suo motu actions. While at times Justice Chaudhry's suo motu actions were…
