Pakistan has sought the consent of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to impose a new tax in the capital of the capital to finance a medical complex of RS213 billion, since Islamabad struggles to find tax roads to complete the project within three years. As an alternative, the Government is also considering exhausting the budget contingency group to release at least RS30 billion immediately to start working in the mega complex, which will house 1,000 beds along with avant -garde medical facilities, according to government sources. They added that the Ministry of Finance had approached the IMF to approve a new municipal tax to raise money to build the medical complex and the Jinnah Research Center in Islamabad. The project provides for the construction of a 1,000 -beds tertiary care center, organized in several medical centers of excellence (COES) supraespecialties (COES). They also said that, in response to Pakistan’s request, the IMF had asked for more details. An IMF mission is also arriving in Islamabad on September 25 to begin conversations for the release of the third section of loan of $ 1 billion, subject to the completion of the second review of the economy. The IMF team will remain in Islamabad until October 8. However, the coalition government is promoting the project quickly to complete it in July 2028, the sources added. They said that the Government also began working in alternative options, including obtaining supplementary budget subsidies or diverting funds from other projects. When it was contacted, the Minister of Planning and Development, Ahsan IQBAL said that the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) has constituted a committee to resolve the financing limitations facing the project by exploring alternative ways to finance it. IQBAL said it would recommend financing the project outside the Public Sector Development Program (PSDP). The minister said the government has provided initial money of approximately 3.5 billion, which will be used to establish the company of the Jinnah medical complex and hire staff to supervise the project. The Planning Minister will preside over the Committee, which will also supervise the physical progress of the project and guarantee its completion within the stipulated period. Other members of the Committee include secretaries of the Ministries of National Health, Planning and Finance Services. The Government faces competitive demands from several state ministries and agencies, since the Federal Development Financing Group has been considerably reduced to only 0.8% of GDP from the 3% peak a few years ago. The sources said the government was also considering using $ 76 million, or RS21.5 billion, in the expected revenues of Panda bonds to finance the Jinnah medical complex. However, the Ministry of Finance insisted that the RS21.5 billion should be treated as part of the RS1 Billions of PSDP for this fiscal year instead of being used as an additional source of financing. The Central Development Work Party (CDWP) had considered the project, where the Ministry of Health declared that additional funds would be provided through panda bonds, corporate social responsibility contributions of companies owned by the Government and municipal taxes of the capital of capital of Islamabad. The CDWP had ordered the Ministry of Health to reaffirm a detailed financing mechanism for the project, incorporating the financing needs proposed through these sources. However, without firm commitments, the government presented the project at the ECNEC meeting, but the question of mobilizing RS213 billion in three years remained unanswered, the sources said. The officials of the Ministry of Planning said that from now on, the Ministry of Health there were no concrete commitments and that only the indicative amounts of these sources that are not PSDP have provided to date. Jinnah Medical Complex Company has also sought funds to buy five vehicles for the project, but the Ministry of Planning described the unjustified demand against the development budget. According to the project documents, the complex will be a large -height building of 15 floors near the New Islamabad International Airport. It is planned that the project is completed in two phases. It is proposed that phase I be completed within 30 months from the launch of funds, while phase II is planned to be completed in two years. The Government argues that the national average of Pakistan is five hospital beds per 10,000 people, compared to 16 in India and a range of 9 to 22 in other neighboring countries of the region. The construction of public sector hospitals has not followed the rate of population growth, with few new facilities built since 1985. The population of Islamabad has increased dramatically from 246,000 in 1984 to almost 1.3 million in 2024. This increase of five times in four decades has created a significant increase in the demand for medical care services.
