(Reuters) – Pakistan has told the International Monetary Fund it will not implement a fuel subsidy programme as the two sides negotiate a long-delayed $1.1 billion bailout for the country, Bloomberg News reported on Thursday.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif in March proposed charging affluent consumers more for fuel, with the money raised used to subsidise prices for the poor who have been hit hard by inflation.
Pakistan has committed not to implement the cross-subsidy programme, an IMF spokesperson told Bloomberg. The government also will not introduce new tax exemptions and will “durably allow” a market-based exchange rate for the rupee currency, the IMF told Bloomberg.
(Reporting by Shivani Tanna in Bengaluru; Editing by Toby Chopra)
