Finance and Planning Minister Dr. Peter Phillips said there is no delay in the negotiations with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the government was proceeding in accordance with the timetable originally set out.
“It is also the case that the essential outlines of the programme to be concluded with the Fund have been settled and we are at the point of discussing the contents of a draft letter of intent,” Dr. Phillips announced in Parliament today.
He said this include a programme and timetable for pension reform. Important structural benchmarks for tax reform, including improvement to tax administration, and the legislative framework regarding tax reform have also been settled.
Dr. Phillips said the white paper setting out the government’s comprehensive policy stance on tax reform has been considered by Cabinet and further work is being done prior to it being laid in Parliament in November.
The Minister said, however, that there are some important technical issues which remain to be finalized.
“The primary issue centres upon the shared view that given the generally precarious conditions within the world economy and the risks that this negative outlook entails for indebted and vulnerable economies such as ours, there is a need for us to construct buffers for such eventualities,” Dr. Phillips said.
“Discussions regarding such buffers continue and we are exploring issues regarding the possibility, for example, of additional debt initiatives such as debt for assets swaps with public sector bondholders and debt for nature swaps,” he added.
However, he said the government was not considering a second debt exchange.
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