Pakistan is "close" to reaching staff-level agreement with the International Monetary Fund according to Advisor to the Prime Minister on Finance and Revenue Shaukat Tarin.

The News reported that Tarin and the IMF concurred on Wednesday "that the PM's aide was making the last-minute endeavor to sign the Memorandum of Economic and Financial Policies with the IMF employees through a consensus."

“Yes we are close,” Tarin was quoted by the News as saying, an indication that the issue may be resolved soon.

Tarin returned to DC to conclude the Sixth Review talks under the $6 billion Extended Fund Facility with the IMF.

Geo also reported that Pakistan and the IMF team "have agreed on jacking up discount rate by 100 basis points, raising it up from 7.25 percent to 8.25 to 8.5 percent, taking additional revenue measures on removing GST exemptions, jacking up rates of income tax for income brackets, abolishing Regulatory Duty (RD) on luxury items and reducing flow and stocks of the monster of circular debt."

IMF’s Resident Chief Teresa Daban Sanchez was quoted in The News as saying the IMF team "remained engaged with Pakistani counterparts on moving forward our work agenda."

In related news, shares at the Pakistan Stock Exchange rose on Wednesday following news that IMF talks were moving forward.