The Senate’s Standing Committee on Economic Affairs met on Thursday at Parliament House, The Ministry of Finance provides information about the loans and payments that have already been made to the IMF.
Pakistan has paid the IMF about $3.60 billion in interest, according to information revealed during the briefing by representatives of the State Bank of Pakistan and the Ministry of Finance.
The interest paid totals more over Rs. 1,000 billion in Pakistani currency, according to the records. Pakistan has borrowed around $29 billion from the IMF over the last 30 years, and it has paid back more than $21.72 billion of those loans.
Pakistan has borrowed more than $6.26 billion from the IMF and paid back $4.52 billion in only the previous four years. Furthermore, Pakistan has paid the IMF about $1.10 billion in interest over the past four years.
Pakistan paid back $646.69 million Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) that it had borrowed from the IMF in 2024 totaling $1.35 billion SDRs.
The IMF developed SDRs as an international reserve asset. In times of necessity, they can be traded for freely useable currencies by governments and are used to augment the official reserves of member nations. SDRs are valued using a basket of the world’s most important currencies.
Senator Kamil Ali Agha, a member of the committee, criticized the Ministry of Finance and SBP officials, saying, “Instead of telling us stories, tell us how much we borrowed from the IMF and how much we still owe. We are constantly informed that the IMF is here to help.”
In response, Ministry of Finance officials stated that Pakistan had borrowed $19.55 billion SDRs from the IMF since 1984 and had returned $14.71 billion SDRs, with $2.44 billion SDRs paid in interest. He then questioned how much interest had been paid to the IMF.
The chairman said, “We all have a part in its destruction,” adding that the nation is not destroying itself. Subsequently, the committee requested information from the IMF about each program, claiming that it was their right to know what transpired in each program.
Officials from the Ministry of Economic Affairs informed the Senate committee that 58 national projects totaling $14,806 million are being financed by World Bank loans.
For these initiatives, $6,162 million has been spent thus far. It was reported to the meeting that a 762 kV transmission line from Dasu to Islamabad is scheduled to be installed, with a $700 million commitment from the World Bank, of which $112 million has already been paid. It is anticipated that the Dasu-Islamabad transmission line project would be finished by June 30, 2025.
