Pakistan will impose an extra one-time 10 per cent tax on the large-scale industry for one year to raise over 400 billion Pakistani rupees ($1.93 billion) to clinch a crucial deal from the IMF, finance minister Miftah Ismail said on Friday.

The announcement comes ahead of what Pakistan hopes will be an agreement to unlock a new tranche of IMF funds. “Let me share this good news that this country isn’t heading toward a default anymore,” the finance minister told parliament.

“We’ve taken very difficult decisions,” he said. Ismail called it a super tax, pleading with large-scale industry to bear with it for just one year to help shore up revenues urgently required to cut the fiscal deficit.

He said the tax will be levied on 13 big industries, companies and corporations, including sugar, steel, cement, oil and gas, fertiliser, cigarettes, chemical, automobiles, banks, textile, LNG terminals and beverages, which have earnings exceeding 300 million Pakistani rupees ($1.45 million).

“So, their tax rates will go from 29 per cent to 39 per cent,” he said. But, he said there will be a blanket 4 per cent super tax on all industries.