Islamabad:
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has sought an explanation of a lack of three international monetary fund (IMF) relationships when Punjab accuses the Center for Weak Revenue Projects and withholds its share of taxes – a deficit that led to the province of violating its cash surplus target.
Sources said the federal government believes the target was missed due to Punjab’s over-consumption on development, despite the fact that both governments were led by PML-N.
The premiere had asked for a response from the Ministry of Finance and the Federal Board of Revenue to the Express Pakinomist’s story of Pakistan, which lacks three important IMF goals.
The newspaper reported that Pakistan missed the conditions for accommodating RS12.3 trillion tax targets, collecting RS50 billion from traders and generating over RS1.2 trillion cash surplus from the four provinces.
According to a summary of fiscal operations released by the Ministry of Finance this week, the provinces did not fall into saving the targeted RS1.2 trillion in the last financial year with a wide margin.
The provincial governments had given the IMF and the federal government’s understanding of generating RS1.2 trillion cash surplus subject to the condition that FBR would meet its tax target. However, the four provinces generated a cash profit of RS921 billion, missing the IMF target with 296 billion.
Under consideration, the sources said that the federal government authorities claimed that the provincial cash surplus mode has primarily been missed due to overuse of Punjab. They said that when the federal government turned to the Punjab government, it threw back the responsibility at the center.
The sources said the Punjab government told the center that the provincial cash surplus target could not be met because the Financial Division did not transfer the proper share of taxes under the National Finance Commission and FBR did not achieve its goals.
However, the authorities of the Ministry of Finance were of the opinion that the other three provinces also received less money compared to the projections, but they still worked much better with Balochistan, which exceeded the IMF target.
The Ministry of Finance’s documents stated that Punjab with a total income of RS4 trillion used RS3.6 trillion, generating a profit of RS348 billion. The amount was RS282 billion or 45% less than the IMF’s target of RS630 billion.
Sindh also missed the IMF target with a margin of RS16 billion or 5.5% and showed a cash profit of RS283 billion. The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government was almost close to the target of a hole of only RS2 billion, but the Balochistan government exceeded the target of RS3 billion.
But the provincial authorities said they were painted as the culprit despite the Ministry of Finance did not pay them their proper shares against the actual revenue collection.
“Based on the actual FBR collection of RS11.7 trillion, detained the Punjabs June -Tranche of the federal divisive pool of 190.8 billion,” said Azma Bukhari, Punjab’s Minister of Information in answer to questions sent by Express Pakinomist.
Azma Bukhari also stated that if RS191 billion amounts were released in June, Punjab’s profits would have been RS539.2 billion against budgeted surplus of 630 billion, which was committed with an FBR target of RS12.97 Billion regardless of any FBR deficit.
In the last budget, the government had given RS12.97 trillion worth of tax targets to FBR, but it ended up collecting for RS11,744 trillion – the second highest lack of RS1,23 trillion.
The provincial Minister of Information added that Punjab had consistently maintained the federal government, that Punjab’s excess obligation was conditional on and proportional to FBR who achieved his collection target.
She also said that RS191 billion of Punjab’s federal divisible pool share was preserved and reflected as a federal cash balance, which significantly improved the primary balance of the federal government at the expense of Punjab’s actual profits.
“Up to as late as mid-June 2025, provinces had no formal intimation from the finance department regarding the reduction of the FBR target during the revised target of RS12.3 trillion,” the Minister of Information said. She said this was the last formally revised goal for FBR with the IMF after the first review of 2024-25.
On June 12, 2025, the Finance Division formally suggested a revised estimate of provincial share for the financial year 2024-25, calculated against an expected FBR collection on RS11.9 trillion, stated the provincial government. It even added then, the actual collection of FBR reached RS11.74 trillion.
The provincial Minister of Information said that Punjab had been on his way to meeting his expenses and receipt goals along with excess targets during the last financial year. Had FBR collected this full amount of RS12.3 trillion, Punjab’s profits would have increased by additional RS160 billion, while the total profits would have been RS699 billion, she added.
“FBR ended well under even the revised estimate mark. With such weak revenue forecasts and drastic downward adjustments that are so late in the financial year of FBR, it is not reasonable to expect a province to meet the budgetary estimates of excess targets,” the Minister of Information said.
