When will Pakistan have a pro-people budget? on May 23, 2021A student recently asked me to outline an ideal people-friendly budget. My answer was and remains this: it should boast long-term vision for growth and prosperity while doing economic justice by all social classes. It must ensure equitable growth and prioritise lifting people out of poverty. Thus, here in Pakistan, the federal and provincial budgets […]
Pakistan, the IMF and debtocracy on May 16, 2021All indicators show that our successive governments, including the incumbent one, due to imprudent economic and tax policies, have pushed Pakistan into chronic, unremitting, unceasing debt-enslavement. Debtocracy is yet to be part of public discourse in Pakistan vis-à-vis state sovereignty and the future of democracy. This was highlighted way back in May 2017 by activist […]
Reforms for growth and prosperity on May 15, 2021 “A comprehensive strategy has been formulated to shift the gears and move to higher economic growth. I do not believe in an increase in taxes to increase revenue collection but those outside the tax net would be tapped. The chances for any harassment by FBR officials shall be eliminated for which change in audit […]
Averting fiscal disaster on May 9, 2021The coalition government of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) is facing fiscal disaster as evident from Summary of Consolidated Federal and Provincial Fiscal Operations, 2020-21, released on May 6, 2021 by the Ministry of Finance, for the first nine months of the current fiscal year. It shows that 37 percent of defence spending is now funded […]
Budget 2021: need for federalised tax apparatus on May 8, 2021“A comprehensive strategy has been formulated to shift the gear and move to higher economic growth. I do not believe in an increase in taxes to increase revenue collection but those outside the tax net would be tapped. The chances for any harassment by FBR officials shall be eliminated for which change in audit procedures. 17 […]
In need of revenue mobilisation strategy on May 2, 2021The provinces must participate in devising a national tax policy and collection apparatus as their share under 7th National Finance (NFC) Award (57.5 percent) is greater than the federal government and it cannot be reduced under Article 160(3A) of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan [“the Constitution”]. Article 156(2) of the Constitution after […]
Agenda for reforms, growth & welfare on April 26, 2021The fragmented tax administration and complex tax codes are one of the reasons for low collection, sluggish growth due to heavy cost of compliance. The citizens, especially, transprovincial entities, have to deal with multiple tax agencies, namely, Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), Punjab Revenue Authority (PRA), Sindh Revenue Board (SRB), Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Revenue Authority (KPRA) […]
Determining fair sales tax base on April 18, 2021In the last article, Determining fair income-tax base, Daily Times, April 12, 2021, an effort was made to determine fair income-tax base. In this article, the same exercise is undertaken for sales-tax on goods, administered by the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) under Sales Tax Act, 1990 [“the Act]. The gap of 17 million was […]
Determining fair income-tax base on April 12, 2021According to the latest data available on the website of Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA), the total number of cellular subscribers as on January 31, 2021 were 180 million (84% teledensity), out of which 95 million were 3G/4G subscribers (44.5% penetration), 2 million basic telephony users (1.3 teledensity) and 98 million broadband subscribers (45.6% penetration). ‘SIM’ […]
FBR: achievements & challenges on April 5, 2021The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), in a Press release issued on March 31, 2021, stated collection of net revenue of Rs.3394 billion, exceeding by “more than Rs.100 billion” the target of Rs.3287 billion for the first nine months. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) before releasing the tranche of US$ 500 agreed to lower FBR’s […]