Tax the rich, subsidise the poor, IMF asks Pakistan
Pakistan must ensure that its high earners pay taxes and only the poor get the subsidies if it wants to function as a country, the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) managing director has said. “My heart goes to the people of Pakistan. They have been devastated by the floods that affected one-third of the population of the country,” Kristalina Georgieva told German broadcaster Deutsche Welle on Friday on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference. “What we are asking for are steps Pakistan needs to take to be able to function as a country and not to get into a dangerous place where its debt needs to be restructured,” she said. “I want to stress that we are emphasising two things. Number one, tax revenues. Those who can, those that are making good money [in the] public or private sector need to contribute to the economy. Secondly, to have a fairer distribution of the pressures by moving subsidies only towards the people who really need it,” she said. “It shouldn’t be that the wealthy benefit from subsidies. It should be the poor [who] benefit from them,” she said, adding that IMF was very clear that it wanted the poor people of Pakistan to be protected.