Prospects of Pakistan and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) striking a deal are brighter as a consensus is developing between the two sides on economic indicators as negotiations between them entered into a final stage on Wednesday, reported 24NewsHD TV channel.
Sources told the 24News TV channel that work was underway on the draft of the Memorandum of Economic and Financial Policies.
They disclosed that the IMF was likely to be soft on some of the targets it had set for the government of Pakistan to meet.
Elaborating further, they said that the Fund was likely to further reduce the annual tax target, which could be around Rs13,500 billion.
Earlier, the tax target set for the ongoing financial year (FY) had been reduced to Rs13,979 billion.
The government had set the annual tax target at Rs14,131 billion.
Sources said that it was up to the IMF to decide whether the negotiations were successful.
If talks remained successful, there would be a staff-level agreement between the two sides.
The Ministry of Finance officials said that negotiations were being held simultaneously under Extended Fund Facility and Climate Financing.
Under both these programmes, the officials informed, Pakistan would receive $1.20 billion in the next tranches.
Reporter: Waqas Azeem