Govt seeks $1.7b despite breaches
Pakistan plans to draw the full $1.7 billion multi-tranche World Bank loan to widen the tax base and align expenditure with the Constitution, even though the lender has twice rated implementation on the approved $600 million tranche as moderately satisfactory and the government has itself breached one of the package's conditions twice. One condition of the package is implementation of the National Tariff Policy. Ironically, the government breached it in June when it raised taxes on imports, and again last month when the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet approved additional customs duty to extend protection to a tyre manufacturing company.