IMF pushes targeted subsidies
The mission chief of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Iva Petrova, on Tuesday urged Pakistan to give only targeted subsidies through the national social safety net programme to deal with the aftermath of the Middle East conflict. Petrova also pointed out the continuous missing of quarterly and annual targets of spending on education and health, which in the last fiscal year remained Rs370 billion below the target of nearly Rs3.5 trillion. She sought clarity on how the government plans to address the issue of statistical discrepancy of Rs853 billion in the books of federal and provincial governments.