Wealth generation and tax collection
Since childhood we have been listening to the mantra: "presently Pakistan is passing through a dangerous and the sensitive-most period of its history." This story never comes to an end…
Federalised tax reform strategy
The Constitution (Eighteenth Amend-ment) Act, 2010, [18th Amendment], became effective on April 19, 2010, brought a major shift in Pakistan’s fiscal and administrative architecture. With principal objective of granting greater…
Pakistan’s flawed tax structure
Donor agencies have been clamouring for reforms in Pakistan’s unfair, inequitable and anomalous tax structure but to date to no avail. Ideally, the onus of tax revenue must shift away…
Pakistan’s taxing tragedy
A wise man once said that the only things certain in life are death and taxes. It would be safe to say that Pakistan’s salaried class – that is, those…
Pakistan’s tax system: an overtaxing Leviathan or a wake-up call for reform?
With the federal and provincial budgets due next month, public and business sentiment is once again shadowed by fiscal apprehension. Recently, media reports suggested that the IMF projects Pakistan’s revenue…
Tax Laws (Amendment) Ordinance, 2025: Ill-advised, confiscatory & undemocratic
The President of Pakistan issued Tax Laws (Amendment) Ordinance, 2025, published in The Gazette of Pakistan on May 2, 2025, made effective at once. Presidential Ordinance No. IV of 2025…
Tax revenue target for 2025-26
The process of preparation of the federal and provincial budgets is underway now and the respective budgets will be announced in the earlier part of June 2025. One of the…
Improving national tax culture
The International Monetary Fund has agreed to lower Pakistan’s tax collection target for the ongoing fiscal year from Rs 12.97 trillion to Rs 12.35 trillion, a move that highlights the…
‘Unconstitutional’ windfall tax—II
Discriminatory without intelligible differentia [Points 7 & 8] The Supreme Court of Pakistan in Federation of Pakistan through Chairman FBR and others v Hazrat Hussain and others (2018 SCMR 939)…
Tobacco taxation
EVERY year, close to 164,000 people die due to tobacco use in Pakistan. This means 450 deaths per day, more than 3,100 deaths per week and over 13,600 deaths per…
