Reports of petroleum levy being 'central point' in IMF programme are 'misleading': finance ministry

Dawn reported that the finance ministry has rejected reports describing the petroleum development levy (PDL) as the core of Pakistan's ongoing International Monetary Fund programme, calling them misleading. The rebuttal responded to an Express Tribune story that blamed the levy for inflation, joblessness, poverty and weak expansion. The package is built around a $7 billion Extended Fund Facility alongside a $1.1bn Resilience and Sustainability Facility.

According to the ministry, the programme's fiscal approach is far broader, resting on FBR revenue collection, a wider tax base, provincial taxation and spending controls, with the levy being just one revenue tool. Published programme documents, it said, contain explicit petroleum pricing terms, including regular alignment of domestic fuel prices with global rates and a supplementary carbon levy introduced under the PDL framework through the RSF. Describing the levy as central, the ministry argued, materially overstates its role.

The ministry also rejected the claim that inflation and growth outcomes trace back to a single instrument, pointing instead to geopolitics, commodity prices, exchange rates, monetary conditions and fiscal imbalances. It described the programme as a whole-of-government effort involving the Finance Division, the Planning Commission, the Ministry of Energy, provinces, FBR and the State Bank of Pakistan. The statement also cited the latest IMF staff report, which it said stresses stronger growth reforms while protecting vulnerable households.