Paradigm shift in tax policy
‘The impact of economic growth on the lives of people is partly a matter of income distribution, but it also depends greatly on the use that is made of the…
Budget, taxes, revival & growth
Fiscal consolidation should be as growth-friendly as possible. In general, tax base-broadening reforms are identified as growth-oriented reforms. To the extent that they reduce distortions to economic decisions on work,…
Pakistan, and international global financial order
In the recently released report ‘Regional Economic Outlook: Middle East and Central Asia’ by International Monetary Fund (IMF), one of its comments on Pakistan’s economy was ‘For… Pakistan, policy interest…
No taxation without representation
Learned Justice Munib Akhtar’s long order elaborating the court’s interpretation of Article 63-A argued that “the real problem is not the sullying of the ranks of a party by the…
Why do all roads lead to more taxes?
As a staff-level agreement between IMF (International Monetary Fund) and Pakistan following the ninth review of the IMF programme inches ever closer, the government recently announced the Supplementary Finance Bill,…
BBC tax raids put India press freedom in spotlight
Just weeks after the BBC aired a documentary examining Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s role in deadly 2002 sectarian riots, tax inspectors descended on the broadcaster’s offices. Modi’s Hindu nationalist…
Taxation of immovable property
The National Assembly through the Finance Act 2012 amended section 37(5) of the Income Tax Ordinance, 2001 [“the Ordinance”] and for the first time levied capital gains tax (CGT) on…
Fixing the taxation system – Part III
One of the pernicious side-effects of a large dose of the federal divisible tax pool injected into the provincial finances is that the provinces have become slack in mobilizing their…
FBR: Dwindling tax collection Jan 06, 2023
Pakistan has one of the world’s lowest tax ratios, stemming from five main weaknesses: complexity, a narrow tax base, low compliance, inefficient tax administration, and low and declining provincial tax…
Fixing the taxation system – Part II
Studies on sectoral incidence show that industry bears more than two-thirds of the tax, while the services sector bears about 21 per cent and agriculture 3.0 per cent. In the…
