Islamabad: The federal and provincial governments have requested the IMF to review the budget surplus target due to the losses caused by the floods.

It should be noted that policy-level talks on the budget surplus of the provinces with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) mission will be held next week.

Finance Ministry sources say that technical-level talks are underway between the International Monetary Fund (IMF) review mission, which has come to Pakistan for the second economic review, and Pakistan, after which policy-level talks will be held.

According to sources, representatives of the federal and provincial governments have had an important meeting with the IMF review mission, in which fears have been expressed that the provincial budget surplus target of Rs 1464 billion may not be achieved due to the floods.

Provincial governments have demanded a review of the budget surplus target from the IMF, while the federation has also demanded a review of the Rs 3.1 trillion target of the primary budget surplus.

Sources say that in the last fiscal year too, the provinces had given a budget surplus of Rs 280 billion less than the target. In addition, there is a fear that Punjab’s primary budget surplus target of Rs 740 billion will not be achieved, while the most losses due to the recent floods have also been incurred in Punjab province.

The Punjab government has not yet given any final assurance on the budget surplus in the negotiations, while Sindh has also requested the mission to review the budget surplus target of Rs 370 billion, and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has linked the budget surplus to receiving all shares from the federal government.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has promised a budget surplus of Rs 220 billion and Balochistan has promised a budget surplus of more than Rs 150 billion. The three provinces will not be able to achieve a primary budget surplus due to the floods.