ISLAMABAD: Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb said on Saturday Pakistan had so far been able to weather the shock from the soaring oil costs due to the Iran war but attacks on infrastructure in Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries were “worrying” for the country’s longer-term economic prospects.

“We have enough energy supplies for November and we are preparing for the winter months when the demand of households goes up,” Aurangzeb told AFP on the sidelines of the IMF-World Bank Annual Meetings in Bangkok.“Pakistan has negotiated well the first order impact,” he remarked.”We have had no shortage, no queues at the gas stations and no law and order situation which at times we have seen in some of the countries,” he said.

“The government would not be procuring spot cargoes on the LNG front unless it saw an absolute dire need,” he said. These are often much more expensive than contracted cargoes.

Since the United States and ally Israel began the war on Iran in February, global energy prices have skyrocketed, with Tehran’s retaliatory action against Washington’s Gulf allies, and curbing supply of oil and gas.

And with Yemen’s civil conflict flaring up again, the Houthis there have frequently assaulted Saudi infrastructure like energy installations and airports in recent days.

“Damage to such sites will only prolong the restoration to economic normalcy,” Aurangzeb said. “I am alarmed about the escalation.“The scary part of it is when the energy infrastructure starts getting hit now,” he warned.To be very honest I don’t know where that would go. But one thing is very clear: if the infrastructure continues to get hammered, the return to normalcy, even if things subside, will be longer,” he said.Pushback

Pakistan is a regular customer of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the lender of last resort to countries teetering on default.

Since independence in 1947, it is now in the middle of its 25th program with the Fund – at least 11 of which have been full-fledged bailouts.

The present program is worth about $7 billion over three years and the Fund agreed last month to disburse a $1.2 billion tranche.

The Fund urged on all economies, even those most vulnerable to the shock of the Iran conflict, to engage in fiscal consolidation at this year’s annual meetings to avoid a possible crisis given the high levels of global debt stocks. ““We have been on this fiscal consolidation path for a while, thankfully for us,” Aurangzeb added with rueful smile.

In recent years tax revenues of the country have expanded considerably and the finance minister indicated that the government was targeting the theft of taxes by private sector enterprises who collected sales tax from consumers but never paid it into government accounts.

The theft was in the billions of dollars, Aurangzeb said, adding that there was “room for improvement” in strengthening income tax collection.

He claimed industry, lobbying groups and vested interests had resisted the government’s reform agenda.“Every reform, every thing you try to do when you try to change the status quo, there is pushback,” he said.

Pakistan’s information technology (IT) exports reached $435 million in September 2026, a 19% year-on-year increase and the largest in nine months, the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) said.

IT export profits increased 10 percent in September from a month earlier, the central bank said, as the country’s technology services industry continued to thrive.

IT exports was at $1.25 billion in the first quarter of this fiscal year, July to September.

The SBP data also revealed that the country’s yearly IT export revenues climbed by 20 percent in the last year to $4.8 billion from $4 billion.

Govt targets $10 bn exports

The government has set a target to expand IT exports to $10 billion by the end of the fiscal year 2028-29 under its Uraan Pakistan strategy.

This aim can be achieved through ongoing expansion of Pakistan’s digital economy, improved foreign market access and sustained growth in technology services.

The Central Power Purchasing Agency (CPPA) has asked the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) to boost power rates by Rs2.56 per unit in the monthly fuel price adjustment for September.

Nepra has fixed hearing on the request of CPPA on 29th October.

The CPPA’s petition said the average fuel cost of electricity generation was estimated at Rs7.46 per unit for September, which went up to Rs10.02 per unit during the month.

The application said that the cost of generation from local coal was Rs7.95 billion and from imported coal was Rs37.14 billion.

Rs13.26 billion was spent on fuel and Rs11.81 billion on furnace oil for power generation in September, the agency said.

It said that Rs13.89 billion was spent on power generating through local gas while Rs31.93 billion was spent on electricity generation through liquefied natural gas (LNG).

The CPPA stated the overall fuel cost of electricity generation was Rs127.87 billion in September.

The petition also said that the power distribution firms (Discos) sold 12.76 billion units of electricity throughout the month.

The scheduled hearing will be held to review the proposed increase by Nepra. The proposed increase has not yet been approved.