Pakistan said it would cut about 150,000 government posts, close six ministries and merge two others, as part of reforms and a $7 billion loan deal with the IMF. Agreed upon. The International Monetary Fund finally approved the aid package last week as the first tranche after Pakistan cut spending, increased the tax-to-GDP ratio and taxed non-traditional sectors such as agriculture and real estate. More than 1 billion US dollars were released.

Pakistan’s Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb said that a program with the IMF has been finalized which will likely be Pakistan’s last program. “We need to implement our policies to ensure that this will be the last program,” he said.

The process of right-sizing within ministries is underway and the decision to close down six ministries will be implemented while two ministries will be merged, he said, adding, “150,000 posts will be eliminated in various ministries.”

He said there were about 300,000 new taxpayers last year and 732,000 new taxpayers have registered so far this year, taking the total number of taxpayers in the country from 1.6 million to 3.2 million.

Pakistan’s economy is moving in the right direction and the country’s foreign exchange reserves have increased, reaching their highest levels, the minister asserted that our claim that the economy is improving is not an empty claim because the government Inflation has come down due to policies. Inflation has fallen to single digits.

Pakistan has been struggling to fix its economy for years and was close to default in 2023 but a timely loan of USD 3 billion from the IMF saved the situation.