A four-member International Monetary Fund (IMF) missionMonday inquired about the current status of progress in implementation of the budget for the fiscal year 2013-14 as well as the status of implementation of Value Added Tax system automation. They had a meeting with National Board of Revenue Chairman Ghulam Hossain and asked about the progress of the macroeconomic indicators what they review routinely against their ECF loan of around US$1bn, said a senior NBR official. He said they also wanted to know the current status of the hard term loans the government wishes to take from different sources. The chairman updated the IMF mission on the latest status of the issues they inquired, said another official. The delegation, led by mission chief Rodrigo Cubero, is now in Dhaka for the third Extended Credit Facility (ECF) review, following disbursement of the third installment of US$136.6m from the package. The latest review would facilitate disbursement of the fourth installment. The IMF, earlier this month, had submitted a requisition to the Ministry of Finance to provide some key economic information including inquiry on FY 14 budget, monthly and full-year target for FY14, sizable revenue shortage in FY13 and main measures underlying FY14 tax revenue collections, including the new tax policy measures. The IMF team also sought information on update of VAT implementation including update on the progress toward selecting a vendor for VAT automation system (December 2013 benchmark) and update on steps taken to allocate personnel and financial resources for the VAT implementation project team.
Thursday, April 25, 2024
