IMF Denies the Salary Tax Hike News in Pakistan

The International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) representative in Pakistan, Esther Perez Ruiz, has said that the IMF is not planning to ask Pakistan to raise taxes on salaries and business income, or to increase the maximum charge for petroleum. IMF Denies the Salary Tax Hike News in Pakistan

News stories were saying that the IMF wanted Pakistan to reduce the number of tax levels for people with salaries and businesses from seven to four. This change was thought to affect middle and upper-middle-income groups more.

Also, there were talks about raising the maximum amount of money collected for petroleum development. But Ruiz clarified in an email to Reuters that the IMF has no such plans right now.

Pakistan is under a temporary government and is using an IMF loan program that started in July. This program helped Pakistan avoid not being able to pay its debts.

With this program, Pakistan got $1.2 billion from the IMF in July, which was the first part of a $3 billion agreement.

Pakistan was in a tough spot financially. It had very little foreign money left, enough for only about three weeks of essential imports. The country also faced very high inflation and a big drop in the value of its currency.

As part of the deal with the IMF, Pakistan agreed to bring in $1.34 billion in new taxes. These new taxes led to the highest inflation in Asia at 38% in May, and it’s still over 30% now.