Another USD 800 million is headed Pakistan’s way after the Asian Development Bank (ADB) approved an amount of USD 800 million for Pakistan. The money is meant to strengthen fiscal sustainability and improve financial management, said a bank official on Tuesday. Early last month, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) had allowed for an immediate disbursement of USD 1 million to Pakistan.
Khurram Schehzad, advisor to the finance minister, confirmed the development in a brief statement on social media, saying, “ADB approves USD 800 million financing package for Pakistan” under the Resource Mobilisation Reform Programme, adding that the package includes a USD 300 million policy-based loan (PBL) and a USD 500 million programme-based guarantee (PBG).
Separately, the Philippines-based lender also confirmed the development in a statement, saying that subprogramme 2 of the “Improved Resource Mobilisation and Utilisation Reform Programme” includes a policy-based loan of USD 300 million, and ADB’s “first-ever policy-based guarantee” of up to USD 500 million, which is expected to mobilise financing of up to USD 1 billion from commercial banks.
Appreciating Pakistan for making “significant progress in improving macroeconomic conditions”, ADB country director for Pakistan, Emma Fan, said the bank’s programme backs the government’s commitment to further policy and institutional reforms and supports far-reaching changes to improve tax policy, administration, and compliance while enhancing public expenditure and cash management.
“It also promotes digitalisation, investment facilitation, and private sector development. These measures aim to reduce Pakistan’s fiscal deficit and public debt while creating space for social and development spending,” she said.
Quoting ministry officials, The Express Tribune newspaper reported that the amount aims to enhance domestic resource mobilisation and stabilise the economy through financial reforms.
Meanwhile, India has made it clear that it had vehemently opposed ADB’s decision to grant the loan to Pakistan, saying the fund could be misused for increasing expenditure on its military, government sources said.
“India shared deep concerns regarding the potential misuse of ADB resources, particularly in light of Pakistan’s increasing defence expenditure, its declining tax-to-GDP ratio, and the lack of demonstrable progress on key macroeconomic reforms,” they said.
Earlier in the day, the Congress, in a post on X quipped that Prime Minister Narendra Modi met ADB President Masato Kanda on June 1 and three days later ADB cleared the USD 800-million loan to Pakistan.
Modi government’s influence did not work on the IMF earlier and Pakistan got loan last month, the post said, adding that this happened even when the conflict between India and Pakistan was going on.
Government sources said India expects the ADB management to adequately ring-fence the ADB financing, to prevent any such misuse, highlighting that the economic fragility of the borrowing country (Pakistan) poses credit risks to the ADB too.
Pakistan’s poor track record of implementation stems from the military’s deeply entrenched interference in economic affairs, posing risks of policy slippages and reversal of reforms as has been witnessed in the past, they said.
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