Body to enhance analytical, forecasting capacity

SOHAIL SARFRAZ

ISLAMABAD: The government has constituted a committee to enhance analytical and forecasting capacity of various departments/ministries through Joint-Macroeconomic Framework for assessment of key macroeconomic indicators, and effective policy making including enhancing revenue collection of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) in 2020-2021.

In this regard, the Finance Division has issued a notification, here on Wednesday.

According to the notification, the adviser to the prime minister on finance and revenue has constituted a committee headed by the special secretary finance for coordination among key stakeholders to enhance their analytical and forecasting capacity for effective policy making.

Special Secretary Finance, Ministry of Finance would be the chairman of the committee.

Members of the committee include deputy governor (policy), the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP); chief economist, the Ministry of Planning, Development and Special Initiatives; economic advisor, Ministry of Finance; additional finance secretary (budget), Ministry of Finance; additional finance secretary (external finance), Ministry of Finance; chief economist, SBP; member policy, FBR; member national accounts, the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics; director general debt, Ministry of Finance, and the director trade, Ministry of Commerce.

The Terms of Reference (TORs) of the committee include: to develop and run an internally consistent Joint-Macroeconomic Framework, to prepare quarterly assessment for key macroeconomic indicators falling under the purview of different agencies and to monitor the progress against these assessments on a monthly basis.

The TORs also state that the Ministry of Finance and the SBP will own the Joint-Macroeconomic Framework including codes and spreadsheets; the quarterly meetings of the committee will be chaired by the adviser to the prime minister on finance and revenue with participation of deputy chairman Planning Commission, finance secretary and the governor SBP; the Joint-Macroeconomic Framework projections will be discussed in the committee meeting of every quarter, two weeks before the IMF review mission; briefing/presentations on the issues will be given by the respective agencies; (i) Fiscal Developments (Ministry of Finance); (ii) Monetary and Inflation Development (SBP); (iii) Trade Activity (M/o Commerce); (iv) Overall Economic Activity-GDP Growth outlook (M/O Planning, Development and Special Initiatives; (v) tax collections (FBR), and (vi) Real and Socio-economic data (PBS).

The committee would have a joint secretariat (MoF) and is expected to hold meeting every month or on need basis, the notification said.