Pakistan Cuts Power Subsidies, Corporate Taxes to Woo IMF
This article is for subscribers only.
Pakistan will reduce power subsidies, remove tax breaks and penalize those not declaring income as Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif tries to narrow the budget deficit to meet the terms of an International Monetary Fund loan.
The shortfall is forecast to shrink to a seven-year low of 4.9 percent in the fiscal year starting July 1, smaller than an estimated 5.8 percent this year, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar said in his budget speech to parliament in Islamabad yesterday. The government aims to narrow the gap to 4 percent by 2017.