Daily Times

“The Laffer Curve, by the way, was not invented by me; it has its origins way back in time. For example, the Muslim philosopher Ibn Khaldun wrote in his fourteenth-century work The Muqaddimah: It should be known that at the beginning of the dynasty, taxation yields a large revenue from small assessments. At the end of the dynasty, taxation yields a small revenue from large assessment”—Dr. Arthur B. Laffer, known to have invented Laffer Curve, has made this observation in his book, Return to Prosperity: How America Can Regain Its Economic Superpower Status (2010), coauthored with Stephen Moore, senior economics writer for the Wall Street Journal

The biggest challenge on tax mobilisation front faced by Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) is bridging monstrous tax gap through automation and introduction of tax intelligence system and not levying more taxes or enhancing the rates of the existing ones—Rationalising tax system, Business Recorder, July 19, 2020.

“With 80% of the taxpayers neither reviewing data being captured against their name nor verifying the data, the data is merely a figment of people’s imagination. Until and unless we have the ability to establish a digital platform for data capture, cross verification, and analysis, all steps for a better tax system will remain illusive“—Amin Dawood Saleh, CFA, FRM

“If we were to construe Entry 52 of the Legislative List keeping in view the above meanings of the expression “in lieu of”, it becomes evident that the Legislature has the option instead of invoking Entry 47 for imposing taxes on income, it can impose the same under Entry 52 on the basis of capacity to earn in lieu of Entry 47, but it cannot adopt both the methods in respect of one particular tax. Since under sections 80-C and 80-CC the imposition of presumptive tax is in substitution of the normal method of levy and recovery of the income-tax, the same is in consonance with Entry 52”—Supreme Court of Pakistan in Messers Elahi Cotton Mills & others v Federation of Pakistan & others [ PLD 1997 Supreme Court 582].

Preparations for federal budget for fiscal year 2021-22, expected on June 11, 2021, are in the final stage amidst very difficult times arising out of economic meltdown since the outbreak of Covid-19 in Pakistan in April 2020. The third wave, after playing havoc with complete, partial and smart lockdowns in many areas of various cities, is now receding, except in Sindh (particularly Karachi), and economic activities are picking up. The challenges of protection of human lives, revival of economy and mitigating extreme financial hardships faced by weaker segments of society are daunting challenges for the budget makers. The top most priority in the budget should be measures to ensure employment. The traditional approach adopted for decades in Pakistan for balancing the books, levying more taxes, containing fiscal deficit and other number games must be abandoned under the prevalent exceptional circumstances when businesses need help to retain employees, first survive and then grow.

Twenty years back, Dr. Arthur B. Laffer and Stephen Moore suggested in Return to Prosperity why lower taxes are essential to economic growth as well for debt reduction and retirement, lean governments with lower expenses, rational trade, monetary and fiscal policies and other conducive environment (ease of doing business and cost of doing businesses) to bring back the investors—all we need in Pakistan today. Had our successive governments adopted these measures, we could have higher growth, mainly through export-led and import-substitutive industries, leading to better tax collection, manageable fiscal deficit and long-term, low-interest loans for creating income-yielding assets, infrastructure improvements and above all having trained human capital.

Mr. Shaukat Fayaz Ahmed Tarin, the fourth Finance Minister of the coalition government of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI), since assumption of oath on April 17, 2021, has made it clear that concrete measures would be taken to broaden the tax base by using IT tools and automation system, rather than levying more taxes. The main focus of the PTI Government, he said, would be on growth leading to better revenue collection without overburdening the existing taxpayers. The economic, fiscal, tax and trade policies, Mr. Shaukat Tarin said would be reformulated taking all the stakeholders on board to revive the already troubled and sluggish economy and then achieving growth in all sectors through well-thought for short, medium and long term plans and taking all the political parties on board. However, he missed the most vital issue of lowering of taxes, which under the prevailing circumstances is essential to kick start the economy and move towards higher growth that is not possible unless we bring inflation down and subsequent decrease by State Bank of Pakistan in discount rate. Our tax rates and cost of compliance are too high to attract investment that is a prerequisite for sustainable high growth.

Like all other nations in the coming days, we will have to strive hard to ensure survival and revival of businesses adversely affected by Covid-19 pandemic that employ millions having no other source of income. Overwhelming majority of businesses in the wake of lockdown necessitated due to Covid-19 epidemic is on the verge of closure—in fact many have already closed and unemployment has risen. The Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE) estimated in the early days of Covid-19 outbreak (March 2020) that “56 percent of the workforce” falls under “vulnerable employment. The study noted: “This includes 80 percent of the people employed in agriculture, 75 percent in wholesale and retail trade, 50 percent in hotels and restaurants, 60 percent in real estate and business, and 40 percent in transport and communication sectors”. In Covid-19 and Pakistan: The economic fallout (June 2020), the author in warned: “The increase in poverty and unemployment will fuel political and social unrest; this, in turn, could destabilise the government and threaten whatever democratic progress Pakistan has made so far”. The number of unemployed people in the country has been estimated to reach 6.65 million during the fiscal year 2020-21, compared to 5.80m of the outgoing financial year.

In No bailout for the poor [Dawn, March 29, 2021], Afshan Subohi noted as under:

“…The revival of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme provided some measure of comfort to the planners. To appease constituents, however, the PTI government needs to do more. Innovative ideas and alternative channels can be deployed to deal with high levels of joblessness and rising living costs.

The corporate relief package has revived the formal economy but the recovery appears to be jobless. The containment of food inflation seems to be on the government’s agenda. The ruling party, however, does not seem to pay attention to Covid-19–induced unemployment. It probably assumed the measures targeting the revival of the economy would address the issue. Perhaps the job-creating potential of the corporate sector in Pakistan is limited. Besides, the big business wary of labour issues prefers to be leaner and inclined to opt for contractual workers for non-core operations to meander around labour laws… Dr Hafiz A Pasha, former finance minister and a leading economist, shared strong views on the subject that he said pained him. “It is sad to watch this level of suffering. The income of working families is falling and the cost of living is rising, making life miserable for so many. The government can’t be absolved of the responsibility. Why did it not support the collapsing small businesses when it went out of the way to help the corporate sector? There is no defence for neglecting a sector that engages more than half of the workforce.” He made a case for extending a Rs500-600 billion micro-credit line to fix the broken financial cycle of small businesses through credible institutions such as Kashf Foundation.

The coming budget must focus on supporting the small and medium enterprises (SMEs). The SMEs were suffering even prior to Covid-19 endemic due to sluggish economic activities, high utility bills and over 13% discount rate by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP). The SMEs need comprehensive bailouts, including tax reliefs. They are complaining of facing difficulties in securing loan facility announced by SBP to pay salaries/wages. Those on rent are demanding remission/deferment/loan to pay the same. Their demand is of interest-free loan and/or grant to employees to avoid lay-offs as after opening of businesses, they argue, it will require many months to recoup losses and achieve break-even position. Amid this bleak scenario, they claim that even present level of markup to private banks, after reduction and maintaining of discount rate of 7% by SBP is unbearable burden. There is demand of massive tax reduction, deferment of old and forthcoming liabilities, and zero taxation for employees earning up to Rs. 100,000 per month, waiver of advance income tax and over 75 withholding tax provisions contained in the Income Tax Ordinance, 2001, Sales Tax Act, 1990 and all provincial laws relating to sales tax on services.

Unfortunately, nobody is talking about raising non-tax revenues by suggesting some out-of-box measures. Somebody needs to tell the Prime Minister that the iniquitous prescription of erratic and oppressive taxes in the forthcoming federal budget will not solve our problems especially in the prevalent circumstances. The federal and provincial governments need to generate and spend more money for infrastructure improvement to create more employments and ensure higher growth, on competitive basis contracts should be given to private sector to complete public projects in time. This would kick-start the economy. Simultaneously, the governments need to reduce wasteful expenditure, right-size the monstrous size of their machinery, monetize all the perquisites of bureaucracy and make taxes simple and low-rate. The expensive State lands, lying in the centre of cities and occupied by elites, should be leased out for industrial, business and commercial ventures. It will generate substantial tax revenue as well (through public auction imposing 5% income tax as full and final tax will generate billions) and facilitate rapid economic growth.

The World Bank in its report, Pakistan Revenue Mobilisation Project, has noted:

“Pakistan’s tax revenue potential would reach 26 percent of GDP, if tax compliance were to be raised to 75 percent, which is a realistic level of compliance for lower middle income countries (LMICs). This means that the country’s tax authorities are currently capturing only half of this revenue potential, i.e. the gap between actual and potential receipts is 50 percent. The size of the tax gap varies by tax instrument and by sector. The tax gap in the services sector is larger than in the manufacturing sector (67 percent vs. 46 percent respectively) and it is larger for the GST/GSTS than for income tax (65 percent vs. 57 percent respectively)”. 

The World Bank, before mentioning tax gap, has not done proper research or study on higher tax rates, narrow tax base, numerous withholding provisions, heavy indirect (oppressive) taxation hurting the poor and salaried and other fixed-income groups and fragmented tax collection bodies at federal and provincial levels that are the main cause of low revenue collection. These fundamental issues have been highlighted along with solutions in ‘Towards Flat, Low-rate, Broad and Predictable Taxes’ (PRIME Institute, December 2020, available free at: https://primeinstitute.org/towards-flat-low-rate-broad-and-predictable-taxes/).

The federal and provincial governments in Pakistan have shown a lukewarm attitude in restructuring the country’s tax system to achieve efficiency, equity and to promote economic growth. Complex tax codes, complicated procedures, reliance on easily-collectable indirect taxes, weak enforcement, inefficiencies, incompetence and corruption are main factors for low tax collection.

Instead of broadening the tax base and simplifying laws, federal and provincial governments offer amnesties, immunities, tax-free perks and perquisites to powerful segments of society. As a result of this policy mindset, ordinary businesses and citizens suffer. In the above cited study we have presented the roadmap for radical revamping and restructuring of the entire tax system, suggesting broad, lower-rate taxes and collection through automation as highlighted in Automation of revenue collection—I, Business Recorder, February 1 & Automation of revenue collection—II, Business Recorder, February 7, 2019.

Tax reforms undertaken to date, have mainly been patchwork, and proven to be an exercise in futility. Tax reform commissions and consultative committees, constituted for reforming the system, have proven to be unsuccessful as they have been suggesting remedies for curing the incurable or otherwise curing symptoms rather than addressing real causes.

In 2020, the Federal Government obtained loan of US$400 million for Pakistan Raises Revenue (PRR) Project. It may be mentioned that the total cost of Pakistan Raises Revenue (PRR) Project is estimated at US $1.6 billion, of which counterpart contribution is $1.2 billion and IDA financing is US$400 million. Following in the footsteps of the Federal Government, the Punjab Government also decided to borrow US$304 million from the World Bank under Punjab Resource Improvement and Digital Effectiveness Programme (PRIDE) aimed at supporting “efficiencies in public resource management that generate savings and create fiscal space for growth-generating investments in the Punjab province”.

The only viable option for meaningful change is to replace the existing tax system with simple, low-rated tax on a broad-base, pragmatic and growth-inducive. With such a system in place, those who are not into the tax net or who avoid true disclosures would be encouraged to pay their taxes voluntarily, honestly and diligently. It will create incentives for better compliance and lead to accelerated economic growth. A paradigm shift is required to restructure the entire tax system to induce more investment, accelerate growth and ensure economic prosperity for the country benefitting all members of society. This should be coupled with transparent and quality spending of taxpayers’ money for welfare of society as a whole and incentivizing growth and economic well-being of every individual.

Mr. Shaukat Tarin has already been given various proposals for prudent tax policy and comprehensive plan for restructuring the entire tax administration on national level. Additionally, through a national revenue agency, federal and provincial government would be in a position to effectively disburse all social security related entitlements. The onus is on him now to implement these.

Our existing Income Tax Ordinance, 2001 extends extraordinary tax-free perks and perquisites to the powerful segments of society (amnesties, concessions and waivers in the last two years caused tax loss of Rs. 3 trillion that is grossly understated in official documents as highlighted in FBR’s statistics: a critical analysis—I, Business Recorder, September 25, 2020, FBR’s statistics: a critical analysis—II, Business Recorder, September 25, 2020, FBR’s Tax Directory: Startling facts and fallacies—I, Business Recorder, October 2, 2020 and FBR’s statistics: a critical analysis—II, Business Recorder, September 25, 2020).

The collection under provincial laws relating to income tax on agricultural income shows that rich and absentee landowners pay meagre income tax. The share of agricultural income tax (AIT) in total tax revenue of Rs. 4.75 trillion in fiscal year 2019-20 (11.4% of GDP) was only 0.06 % of GDP of Rs. 44.7 trillion. What makes the situation more painful is the inadequate allocations and poor quality spending both by federal and provincial governments for health, education and other social services to mitigate the sufferings of the poor that are increasing day by day, especially because of frequent partial and complete lockdowns in the wake of Covid-19 endemic and high food inflation.

The budget for fiscal year 2021-22 should not be a bureaucratic exercise under the IMF umbrella. The coalition governments of PTI in centre and three provinces need to restructure the tax system to tap the real tax potential at national level and at the same time provide quality social services to the citizens, drastically cut wasteful expenditures, get rid of mess in energy sector and stop further bleeding of public funds on loss-bearing state owned enterprises (SOEs). The real dilemma of Pakistan is outdated, colonial-style administrative and judicial structures, elitism, cronyism, greed and corruption on the part of predatory elites. The exiting bureaucrats are parasites and since rent-seeking is accepted as a norm, even the private sector is neither growth catalyst nor ready for innovations. We have crony capitalism for rent-seekers in private sector—see detailed study that quantifies the annual cost to exchequer of pro-rich tax SROs:

http://www.indusconsortium.pk/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Abolishing-pro-rich-Dr.-Ikram-Final-Study-1.pdf.

We must undertake fundamental structural reforms to dismantle elitist and rent-seeking economic system [There’s need for new tax model, Business Recorder, February 26, 2021].  By improving voluntary tax compliance, lowering tax rates, withdrawing all withholding provision (except on salary, dividend, interest and payment to non-residents) and broadening tax base as suggested, we can collect Rs. 8 trillion at federal level and Rs 2 trillion at provincial levels. If we manage to collect tax revenue of Rs. 10 trillion, our reliance on domestic and foreign loans will decrease significantly and diminish after few years, provided we achieve sustainable growth rate of at least 7% for a decade for which simplification of tax system as a whole is a prerequisite [FBR, tax potential & enforcement—I, Business Recorder, March 5, 2021 and FBR, tax potential & enforcement—II, Business Recorder, March 7, 2021].

The idea of restructuring of Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) presented in Need for National Tax Agency, Business Recorder, November 1, 2013 was later elaborated in various articles, Need for National Tax Authority, Business Recorder, October 20, 2017, A case for National Tax Authority—I, Business Recorder, November 30, 2018, A case for ‘National Tax Authority’—II, Business Recorder, December 2, 2018 and Case for All-Pakistan Unified Tax Service: PTI & innovative tax reforms’, Business Recorder, August 31, 2018. The complete draft of national tax agency is available in Towards Flat, Low-rate, Broad and Predictable Taxes  (revised/enlarged edition of December 2020, PRIME Institute, Islamabad) and in Tax Reforms in Pakistan: Historic & Critical Review (PIDE, Islamabad). It was also included by the Tax Reforms Commission in its final report submitted to the government in February 2016, it was marked confidential by then Finance Minister, Ishaq Dar, now a fugitive.

There cannot be two opinions that FBR or any other tax collection agency needs to be run by a competent board as a short-term reform measure before all of these are finally merged into a single national tax authority. The officers of FBR have reportedly suggested the name: Pakistan Revenue Board (PRB). This body, whatever may be the name, should not only be responsible for collection of taxes for federal, provincial and local governments but also to administer various social and economic benefits and incentive programmes, otherwise tax compliance will remain a distant dream. People must get free education, quality healthcare, decent housing/transport plus social security, such as universal pension, disability allowance, old age benefits, income support, child support, just to mention a few, in lieu of paying due taxes as suggested in There’s need for new tax model, Business Recorder, February 26, 2021.

The National Tax Agency (NTA) can be assigned the task of collecting all taxes for the federation (levied in terms of Article 142 read with the Fourth Schedule to the Constitution of Pakistan by federal and provincial parliaments). This is necessary for reducing the monstrous size of multiple collecting agencies at federal and provincial levels that are marked with inefficiencies, incompetence and corruption and creating unnecessary compliance cost, rather than operating under one-window. Presently, taxpayers have to deal with multiple tax agencies adding to their cost of doing business.

On March 12, 2020, according to Press release of Ministry of Finance, the National Tax Council [NTC] was established and its terms of reference (ToRs) approved. According to a Press report, “The harmonisation of GST is part of the World Bank’s budgetary support loan of US$750 to US$900 million”. It is mentioned in the report that as “suggested by International Monetary Fund (IMF), the centre and provinces have finally agreed to establish NTC “to resolve all tax-related issues, especially for the harmonisation of general sales tax (GST) across the country”. It confirms that our governments do nothing unless lenders/donors force them to do. It was decided that NTC would have technical level representations from the federation and federating units to resolve tax-related issues without amending the constitution. The NTC has an executive committee, comprising federal finance secretary, Chairman of FBR, provincial finance secretaries and heads of the provincial revenue authorities, namely, Punjab Revenue Authority (PRA), Sindh Revenue Board (SRB), Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Revenue Authority (KPRA) and Balochistan Revenue Authority (BRA). The executive committee of NTC is to forward its suggestions/proposals for approval by the NTC. The NTC recommendations would be finalised in terms of majority to be presented before Monitoring Committee of the National Finance Commission (NFC).

The NTC should seriously consider the models of Swedish revenue authority [Skatteverket] and Canadian Revenue Authority (CRA) that not only collect taxes at all tiers of government but also extend benefits like social security, food stamps, universal pension and income support etc. The linkage of database of various bodies with NTA (complete digitisation) can be a great step towards an e-government model for the country that is presently non-existent. The complete roadmap for achieving this goal is discussed in Time up for fiscal integration—I, Business Recorder, December 21, 2018, Time up for fiscal integration—II, Business Recorder, December 23, 2018, Overcoming fragmented tax system, Business Recorder, October 19, 2018, Doing business under scattered taxation, Business Recorder, September 7, 2018 and Case for All-Pakistan Unified Tax Service: PTI & innovative tax reforms, Business Recorder, August 31, 2018.

According to Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA), the total number of cellular subscribers as on March 31, 2021 was 183 million (84.68% teledensity), out of which 98 million are 3G/4G subscribers (43.51% penetration), 2 million basic telephony users (1.13 teledensity) and 101 million broadband subscribers (46.4% penetration). Over 100 million mobile users (many have more than one number) are paying advance/adjustable income tax of 12.5% but the nation is labelled as “tax cheat—a highly deplorable act of Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) and many so-called tax experts working on the agenda of lenders and donors. About 97% mobile users do not file returns as FBR in its Press release of May 1, 2021 confirmed receiving total tax returns of 2.9 million. FBR should register all taxable persons to bridge the tax gap. Legislature must stop taking 12.5% income tax. Additionally, all mobile users pay 19.5% sales tax on services in their respective provinces (for users in Islamabad Capital Territory, 17% federal excise duty) plus 10% activation charges.

It is clear that the government is not using this surge in teledensity due to complete and partial lockdowns under Covid-19 endemic for growth of e-commerce and export of Information Communication Technology (ICT) products. The World Customs Organisation’s Harmonised System (HS) defines ICT products must either be intended to fulfill the function of information processing and communication by electronic means, including transmission and display, or use electronic processing to detect, measure and/or record physical phenomena, or to control a physical process—for data and other details visit: https://data.oecd.org/ict/ict-goods-exports.htm.

The available data confirm that digital economy could be tens of billions of dollars in the next two decades. Are we ready for taking benefit of it to eliminate our foreign debts and promote ICT goods and services to provide jobs to young IT trained personnel? The answer is big NO. Presently, the telecom sector is a conduit to fleece the poorest of the poor by the federal and provincial governments through exorbitant taxes! Ironically, Prime Minister, Imran Khan, has ambitious anti-poverty Ehsaas initiative(s) utilising telecom as a powerful tool in poverty alleviation but Pakistan is among the highest taxed telecom markets in the world. The cost of ownership of a basic handset and connection in Pakistan is above 30 percent. This anti-growth taxation should be abolished and export of ICT goods and services not only should be given exemption but also bonus as is the case in Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and many other countries.

In view of above, it is imperative to make a change in the Income Tax Ordinance, 2001 in the Finance Bill 2021 of compulsory registration of taxpayers by FBR and payment of refund without application through bank account of a person [those having no bank accounts should be paid through mobile wallet]. Once, this amendment is made, FBR should register 100 million unique mobile users as taxpayers without any further delay.

As suggested above, if FBR registers all the unique 100 million mobile users, we can achieve the collection of Rs. 8 trillion (income tax Rs. 5 trillion and sales tax Rs. 3 trillion). FBR will have to take the following steps:

• After compulsorily registration of all unique 100 million mobile users, send them text message giving username and password to upload (in the case of non-filers) or update profile (on the basis of filers) on FBR’s website answering just four questions:
o Dependent or head of family. If head of family, mention number of dependents.
o Self-employed or salaried person [salaried person to write name/address of employer].
o Self-employed to mention the nature of businesses or profession and address (or addresses if multiple places are used) where business is conducted and profession is exercised.
o Annual net income from all sources and gross receipts.
• Those having taxable income but never filed income tax return and sales tax statement should be facilitated to file simple and easy one-pager tax return having declaration of gross sales or receipts, as the case may be, made available both in English and Urdu. Those living in areas where internet is not available, help of Post Office nearby can be taken or a person having 3G/4G service of any mobile company to fill simple declaration mentioning the identity of the person who entered data on his behalf.
• It will help in documentation of all households and their earning levels at national level by matching family-tree data available with NADRA.
• Individuals earning below taxable limit should be paid income support (negative tax) till the time they are provided vocational training and employment rather than being kept as beggars for life. Special persons with any disability or disabilities must be taken care of by respective governments where they live.
•Those not registered as voters will be entered in the voters’ list through the help of Election Commission of Pakistan to become voters.
On the basis of above, FBR will have ‘National Socio-Economic Registry’ of all households. The requirement of Financial Action Task Force (FATF) of comprehensive data of all and their risk evaluation from the standpoint of anti-money laundering (AML) and countering of terrorist financing (CFT) will also be met to come out of grey list in June 2021.

Prime Minister, Imran Khan, must take special interest in this proposed scheme and order FBR to pay refunds of 12.5% collected from 80 million having non-taxable or no income during the last 5 years. It was advance and adjustable income tax as pre-paid or post-paid mobile users. In case it is done, PTI will secure support of 80 million in the next election. Refund to them will be a great gesture by the State in helping all those earning no income or income below taxable limit in the difficult days of Covid-19 endemic. In addition, Pakistan will have data of all 100 million adults—already verified through biometric system to have mobile connectivity about their socio-economic status. It will help in planning initiatives under Ehsaas in a transparent and targeted manner. This will be a great step forward to making Pakistan an economically viable and a welfare state provided the suggested measures are taken in the forthcoming budget.

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Ms. Huzaima Bukhari, MA, LLB, Advocate High Court, Visiting Faculty at Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS), member Advisory Board and Visiting Senior Fellow of Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE), is author of numerous books and articles on Pakistani tax laws. She is editor of Taxation and partner of Huzaima & Ikram and Huzaima Ikram & Ijaz, leading law firms of Pakistan. From 1984 to 2003, she was associated with Civil Services of Pakistan. Since 1989, she has been teaching tax laws at various institutions including government-run training institutes in Lahore. She specialises in the areas of international tax laws, corporate and commercial laws. She is review editor for many publications of Amsterdam-based International Bureau of Fiscal Documentation (IBFD) and contributes regularly to their journals.

She has coauthored with Dr. Ikramul Haq many books that include Tax Reforms in Pakistan: Historic & Critical Review, Towards Flat, Low-rate, Broad and Predictable Taxes (revised/enlarged edition of December 2020), Pakistan: Enigma of Taxation, Towards Flat, Low-rate, Broad and Predictable Taxes, Law & Practice of Income Tax, Law , Practice of Sales Tax, Law and Practice of Corporate Law, Law & Practice of Federal Excise, Law & Practice of Sales Tax on Services, Federal Tax Laws of Pakistan, Provincial Tax Laws, Practical Handbook of Income Tax, Tax Laws of Pakistan, Principles of Income Tax with Glossary and Master Tax Guide, Income Tax Digest 1886-2011 (with judicial analysis).

The recent publication, coauthored with Abdul Rauf Shakoori and Dr. Ikramul Haq, is Pakistan Tackling FATF: Challenges & Solutions available at:  https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08RXH8W46

She regularly writes columns/articles/papers for Pakistani newspapers and international journals. She has contributed over 1500 articles and research papers on issues of public finance, taxation, economy and on various social issues in various journals, magazines and newspapers at home and abroad.

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Dr. Ikramul Haq, Advocate Supreme Court, specialises in constitutional, corporate, media, IT, intellectual property and international tax laws. He established Huzaima & Ikram in 1996 and is presently its chief partner as well as partner in Huzaima Ikram & Ijaz. He studied journalism, English literature and law. He is Chief Editor of Taxation. He is Visiting Faculty at Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) and member Advisory Board and Visiting Senior Fellow of Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE).

He has coauthored with Huzaima Bukhari many books that include Tax Reforms in Pakistan: Historic & Critical Review, Towards Flat, Low-rate, Broad and Predictable Taxes (revised & Expanded Edition, Pakistan: Enigma of Taxation, Towards Flat, Low-rate, Broad and Predictable Taxes (revised/enlarged edition of December 2020), Law & Practice of Income Tax, Law , Practice of Sales Tax, Law and Practice of Corporate Law, Law & Practice of Federal Excise, Law & Practice of Sales Tax on Services, Federal Tax Laws of Pakistan, Provincial Tax Laws, Practical Handbook of Income Tax, Tax Laws of Pakistan, Principles of Income Tax with Glossary and Master Tax Guide, Income Tax Digest 1886-2011 (with judicial analysis).

The recent publication, coauthored with Abdul Rauf Shakoori and Huzaima Bukhari is Pakistan Tackling FATF: Challenges & Solutions available at: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08RXH8W46

He is author of Commentary on Avoidance of Double Taxation Agreements signed by Pakistan, Pakistan: From Hash to Heroin, its sequel Pakistan: Drug-trap to Debt-trap and Practical Handbook of Income Tax.

He regularly writes columns/article/papers for many Pakistani newspapers and international journals and has contributed over 2500 articles on a variety of issues of public interest, printed in various journals, magazines and newspapers at home and abroad.

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