ISLAMABAD:

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has once again raised the issue of imposing additional taxes on fertiliser and introducing an excise duty on the use of pesticides to partly offset a shortfall in the annual tax target, which the government has requested to defer until next year.

The global lender has asked the government to trigger the contingency measure by doubling the federal excise duty rate on fertiliser to 10% and introducing a 5% federal excise duty on pesticides, according to government sources involved in the negotiations with the IMF. Sources said that during ongoing discussions, the IMF team observed that the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) may fall short of its target by at least Rs400 billion to Rs500 billion, depending on multiple factors.

However, the IMF m

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