NA passes IMF-dictated finance supplementary bill
Despite clearly lacking quorum, the National Assembly after a lackluster debate on Monday passed the IMF-dictated Finance (Supplementary) Bill 2023, seeking to impose additional Rs170 billion taxes with minor amendments as Finance Minister Ishaq Dar held the mismanagement in the power sector and poor economic policies of the previous PTI regime mainly responsible for this economic burden on the masses. In his winding up speech on the finance (supplementary) bill, generally known as the mini-budget, the minister informed the house that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) initially wanted the government to raise more than Rs800bn from tax and non-tax measures and that it took him and his team 10 days to convince the Fund to bring it down to the minimum level of R170bn. Before presentation of the bill in the parliament on Feb 15, the government had already implemented Rs115bn worth of taxes through two notifications issued on Feb 14. Now, after a formal assent by President Arif Alvi, the remaining Rs55bn tax measures would come into effect.