Pkrevenue.com

Tag: World Bank

  • World Bank approves $518 million for Pakistan’s efforts to raise domestic revenue

    World Bank approves $518 million for Pakistan’s efforts to raise domestic revenue

    ISLAMABAD: The World Bank on Friday approved a package of $518 million for two projects in support of Pakistan’s ambitious efforts to raise revenue and reduce compliance cost with a goal of providing better services to the people.

    The $400 million Pakistan Raises Revenue Project will support the Federal Board of Revenue’s (FBR) focus to create a sustainable increase in Pakistan’s domestic tax revenue. The project will assist in simplifying the tax regime and strengthening tax and customs administration. It will also support the FBR with technology and digital infrastructure and technical skills. This will enable more effective use of taxpayer information and more targeted compliance. The Government has set improving tax revenue with low compliance costs as a high priority.

    “Revenue mobilization plays an essential role in Pakistan’s fiscal sustainability,” said Muhammad Waheed, Task Team Leader of the Project. “The project will target raising the tax-to-GDP ratio to 17 percent by financial year 2023-2024 and widening the tax net from the current 1.2 million to at least 3.5 million active taxpayers.”

    Pakistan’s revenue performance has improved significantly from tax policy measures in recent years, rising from 9.5 percent of GDP in financial year 2011-2012 to 12.9 percent in financial year 2017-2018. This is still lower than the level needed by developing countries, of at least 15 percent of GDP, to fund basic government functions and provide services to people.

    “Creating fiscal space through revenue mobilization is critical to reduce the country’s budget deficit, enabling people of Pakistan to benefit from better public investments and services,” said Illango Patchamuthu, World Bank Country Director for Pakistan.

    The $118 million Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Revenue Mobilization and Public Resource Management Project will support the Government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to increase its capacity for revenue collection and the management of the province’s resources. The project is anchored in the provincial government’s Public Financial Management Strategy (2017-2020) and will strengthen the government’s Public Financial Management system.

    While the government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has made progress in revenue mobilization and management of public finances, its revenues remain low. Enhancing the tax revenue could increase its capacity to provide better services to residents. It will also reduce its dependence on federal transfers, which accounted for 86 percent of provincial revenue in the financial year 2016-2017.

    “Mobilizing domestic revenue is crucial to improving human development outcomes in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa,” said Raymond Muhula, Task Team Leader of the Project. “This project will support the government’s priority to increase its own source revenue and to better manage its resources.”

  • World Bank helps Sarena Hotels to obtain global business certification for gender equality

    World Bank helps Sarena Hotels to obtain global business certification for gender equality

    ISLAMABAD: International Finance Commission (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, is partnering with one of the largest hotel chains in South Asia, Serena Hotels Pakistan, to help it become the first company in Pakistan to obtain the leading global assessment and business certification for gender equality—EDGE (Economic Dividends for Gender Equality), a press release said on Tuesday.

    Currently, in Pakistan, only about one in four women work and just 7 percent of the country’s workforce is female.

    The certification evaluates companies’ workplace gender equality performance against global and industry benchmarks, helping them become a gender equal environment to work in, invest in, and do business with. EDGE currently works with nearly 200 organizations in 50 countries and 23 industries.

    “Our collaboration with IFC on gender-smart initiatives will allow us to help our women Associates, while benefiting from attracting and utilizing their talent in our Company. Most importantly, it will allow us to further improve the workplace where all Associates are viewed as equal, so that we have a more productive, engaged, loyal, and skilled team. Gender equality is a win-win for both our Associates and business,” said Aziz Boolani, CEO of Serena Hotels in Pakistan.

    Headquartered in Islamabad, Serena Hotels Pakistan, a recipient of “Employer of Choice for Gender Balance-2018” employs 12 percent women in a workforce of 1,900.

    Through the EDGE gender assessment process and with support from IFC, the group aims to further enhance gender balance by creating more opportunities for women’s employment, capacity building of high-potential women Associates to leadership training and skill development of women at community level for entrepreneurship.

    “There’s no doubt that companies can deliver greater business impact and be more competitive by fostering an equitable and inclusive workplace for women and men,” said Nadeem Siddiqui, IFC’s Senior Country Manager in Pakistan.

    “We hope more companies in Pakistan will discover the strength of the business case for greater gender equality in the workplace.”

  • Massive cut in tax exemptions, concessions likely in budget 2019/2020

    Massive cut in tax exemptions, concessions likely in budget 2019/2020

    ISLAMABAD: The government has planned to a massive cut tax in exemptions and concessions in the budget 2019/2020, which is scheduled to be announced on June 11, 2019.

    Sources told PkRevenue.com that the government had committed with the World Bank and other international agencies to withdraw large size exemptions given to various sectors and individuals in order to boost revenue collection, especially in the wake of difficult economic situation.

    The sources said that the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) had already initiated policy making and would introduce phases to withdraw available tax concessions and exemptions.

    According to Pakistan Revenue Mobilization Program funded by the World Bank, the FBR had already launched several initiatives including ongoing review of tax policy to formulate a medium-term tax policy framework and propose measures to reduce tax expenditure for the budget 2019/2020.

    The cost of tax exemptions and concessions in the fiscal year 2017/2018 was around Rs541 billion, which included: income tax Rs61.78 billion; sales tax Rs281 billion; and customs duty Rs198.15 billion.

    The sources said that in the first phase around 50 percent exemptions and concessions would be withdrawn in the budget 2019/2020.

    The World Bank on Pakistan report said multiple exemptions and discounted rates to select industries, economic actors, and economic activities (e.g. sugar, textiles, and fertilizer industries; ‘associations’ in the real estate sector; imports for infrastructure projects under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor) are granted in each year’s budget law, which distort competition and economic actors’ incentives. In FY2017/18, Pakistan’s tax expenditure (i.e., tax revenue foregone due to exemptions and concessional rates) was estimated at 2 percent of GDP, primarily due to exemptions from General Sales Tax (GST) and customs duties.

    “Substantial exemptions also apply to property taxes, whereby properties below a certain size are exempted regardless of location, while revenue is also lost due to unrealistically low valuations used for taxation purposes.”

    The Capital Gains Tax (CGT) returns negligible receipts due to the zero rate applied to capital gains from the sale of immovable property after more than four years of ownership, and rates of 5-10 percent for properties sold after one to four years of ownership, the report said.

    The present PTI-led government has issued a roadmap for stability, growth and productive employment issued in April 2019 and stated that tax policy has to balance the revenue objective with equity and growth objectives.

    Presently tax policy has a predominant revenue focus and as such is likely to create distortions in the economy which can adversely affect the growth and equity objectives.

    In addition, even the revenue objective is compromised by large scale exemptions. To correct this shortcoming, the government intends the following:

    i) Enact a law to ensure that no tax exemption is allowed through law or notification without an estimate of its cost independently by the tax department as well as the concerned ministry. Such cost will be made public before notification of the exemption.

    ii) Review all existing exemptions, with the purpose of eliminating as many of those as possible. Even if an exemption is to be retained its cost will be determined and made public. Ministry of Finance to publish annually a statement of tax expenditures to show how much revenue is being foregone due to exemptions.

    iii) Ensure that all exemptions, existing or newly proposed, will have a sunset clause (ideally not more than 5 years).

    iv) Publish a list of all government owned, quasi-government and government-linked enterprises availing tax exemption/concession in any way along with quantification of the tax expenditure. In addition, a plan be prepared for phasing out of these concessions.

    v) Withdraw FBR powers to issue SROs to grant exemptions. This power will vest only with the Parliament.

    vi) Ensure that all non-procedural existing SROs will expire at the end of the fiscal year. Steps taken over the last two years to incorporate all exemptions granted through SROs to be made part of the body of law.

  • FBR to target large taxpayers for detailed field audit

    FBR to target large taxpayers for detailed field audit

    ISLAMABAD: Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) to conduct tax audits of large taxpayers, who are selected through an automated risk-based tool.

    According to World Bank’s updated report on ‘Pakistan Revenue Mobilization’ said that according disbursement linked Indicators (DLI) the FBR required to conduct tax audits on cases selected through an automated risk-based tool, informed by analysis of integrated data from multiple sources.

    It sets targets for detailed field audits of large taxpayers, thereby making an efficient use of resources for the highest impact.

    Riskbased audit is essential to deterring tax evasion and increasing compliance, especially for large taxpayers who use complex tax evasion techniques.

    It also benefits compliant taxpayers, as it spares them the hassle and cost of ineffective mass audits and reduces the discretion of FBR officials to pick cases for audit.

    The World Bank program also required the FBR to implement—through licensed agents—electronic production monitoring for high-risk sectors (e.g., sugar, cement, fertilizer) and electronic tracking of production, distribution, and sale of final products (tobacco, beverages).

    It will increase compliance by reducing the risk of under-declaration of output, sales, and corporate profits, the report said.

    The DLI related to new taxpayers with taxable incomes/sales identified through automated data sharing and ICT-based BI

    (number)will ensures that the FBR will use the new ICT equipment and software that enables the BI and data mining tools to identify unregistered or noncompliant taxpayers.

    It also disincentivizes the registration of individuals and firms without taxable income or sales, thereby avoiding inefficient use of FBR resources and negative impacts on micro firms and economically weaker households.

  • FBR to reduce withholding tax provisions under World Bank program

    FBR to reduce withholding tax provisions under World Bank program

    ISLAMABAD: Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) is required to reduce number of withholding provisions to strengthen the income tax and take out this system from indirect taxes.

    According to funding approved by the World Bank for Pakistan Revenue Mobilization Project, the FBR is required to reduce the scope of withholding regime.

    The World Bank said that the funding requires a reduction in the types of transactions subject to income tax withholding.

    “It contributes directly to transparency of the tax system, given that the withholding regime transforms income taxes into indirect taxes, which are less visible to taxpayers. It will also greatly reduce compliance costs for firms that have to act as withholding agents.

    The World Bank also approved funds for transparent tax system for Pakistan. The World Bank said that under this funding the authorities require detailed reporting of tax expenditure in the annual budget documentation with disaggregated information about the cost and beneficiaries of each exemption and concession.

    “It is important to broadening the tax base because it exposes the revenue foregone due to each exemption/concession, and the industries that benefit.”

    The World Bank also stressed on coordination of the FBR with provinces. Under this funding program the FBR needs to reach agreements with the provinces on automated sharing taxpayer information, the methodology for calculating GST input adjustments, and common updated property valuation tables.

    “This coordination will enable the FBR and the provinces to broaden their respective tax nets. Coordination can be facilitated through the newly established Fiscal Coordination Committee, comprising the federal and provincial governments.”

  • FBR is not organized revenue authority

    FBR is not organized revenue authority

    ISLAMABAD: Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), unlike most revenue authorities in the world, is not organized along functional lines, nor does it have a clear hierarchical structure.

    This was stated by the World Bank in its report on Pakistan taxation.

    It said: The FBR is a large organization with a nationwide presence and more than 21,000 staff, of whom about two thirds work for Inland Revenue Service (IRS) and one third for Pakistan Customs.

    It further said despite a government target for women to reach 10 percent of public employees, the FBR has only 962 women staff (4.6 percent).

    However, women are better represented among professional-grade staff (grades 17+), accounting for 17.6 percent of total staff in grades 17-22.

    The two services have separate career structures and human resource practices with limited shared services (e.g. accounting).

    Their audit functions, ICT systems, and territorial formations (Regional Tax Offices/Large Taxpayer Units for the IRS, Customs stations and control points) are also separate.

    The IRS is organized along tax instruments, territorial jurisdictions, and taxpayer segments (e.g. Large Taxpayer Units) rather than functions (e.g. taxpayer registration, assessment, tax audit).

    “A mixed function-based and segment-based structure is considered more efficient, as it enables technical specialization of staff, automation of business processes by function, fewer offices, and complete taxpayer profiles – rather than separate records for each tax instrument as is the case in the FBR,” the World Bank said.

    In terms of management structure, the FBR Act assigns the decision-making functions to the Board with limited powers for the Chairman.

    In turn, Board Members are responsible for different functions but do not oversee FBR territorial formations, where most FBR staff are deployed.

    Moreover, IRS Directors-General report directly to the FBR Chairman rather than Board Members.

  • Monthly sales tax return filing main reason for Pakistan’s low ranking in paying taxes

    Monthly sales tax return filing main reason for Pakistan’s low ranking in paying taxes

    ISLAMABAD: The requirement of filing monthly sales tax return is the main reason for Pakistan’s low ranking in the Paying Taxes Indicator of the World Bank.

    The World Bank in a recent report on Pakistan taxation said that the country’s tax system is complex due to overlapping jurisdictions with different laws, exemptions, and frequent policy changes.

    It said that service providers operating across Pakistan are obliged to file sales tax on services returns with all five jurisdictions every month, resulting in a total of 62 tax returns based on five different sets of rules and formats for sales tax on services alone.

    “The requirement to file monthly sales tax returns is one of the main issues for Pakistan’s low

    score and ranking in the Paying Taxes indicator, which is the country’s worst ranking in the 2019 Doing Business report.”

    Pakistan is ranked 173nd among 190 economies for this indicator with 47 payments and an estimated time to comply with tax obligations of 293.5 hours per year, down from 311.5 in the previous year.

    The World Bank said that the Constitution assigns income taxes (except for income derived from agriculture), Sales Tax on goods, customs duties, federal excises, and the Capital Gains Tax (CGT) to the federal level.

    These taxes are collected by the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR).

    The Constitutions assigns the following taxes to the provinces: sales tax on services, tax on professions, Agricultural Income Tax (AIT), Motor Vehicle Tax (MVT), Urban Immovable Property Tax (UIPT), and other taxes related to real estate (e.g. stamp duty, Capital Value Tax).

    This tax assignment essentially fragments Pakistan into five markets in the services sector, with important consequences for tax authorities and taxpayers alike.

    The World Bank said that several taxes are often levied on the same transaction (e.g. stamp duty, registration fee, Capital Value Tax, and Capital Gains Tax on property transactions) and/or affect the same taxpayer segments (e.g. professionals are liable to income tax, professions tax, and sales tax on services).

    Double taxation is particularly serious problem for firms that provide services across the country.

    These firms are liable to Corporate Income Tax paid to the FBR and sales tax on services paid to each of the provinces where they operate and to the FBR for operations in the Islamabad Capital Territory.

    The five jurisdictions have different rates for sales tax on services and apply different principles in levying this tax (e.g. some levy the tax based on the firm’s registered address, others based on the customer’s location).

    Disagreements on the definition of goods and services also affect the restaurant and catering sector, which the federal level subjects to sales tax on goods (food and beverages), while the provinces also levy sales tax on services.

  • Taxation not widely considered as civic duty in Pakistan

    Taxation not widely considered as civic duty in Pakistan

    ISLAMABAD: The taxation has not been widely considered as civic duty in Pakistan, the World Bank said in a report issued recently.

    The World Bank said that tax evasion is pervasive due to low tax morale and legal loopholes that enable high-value individuals to conceal their incomes.

    Few Pakistani citizens think of themselves as taxpayers, even though they pay indirect taxes on their consumption. “Therefore, taxation is not widely considered as a civic duty and essential to finance public services.”

    The report said that in turn, better-off households generally do not rely on public education or health services and have little stake in paying taxes to finance better public service provision.

    At the same time, tax evasion is facilitated by legal loopholes.

    The Law on Benami Transactions of 2016, which prohibits anonymous transactions, could have closed one of the major loopholes.

    It has not however been implemented because secondary regulations have not been approved.

    Prize bonds, a large source of domestic borrowing for the government, have hitherto been both anonymous and tax exempt, making them an instrument of choice for investing funds of unexplained origin.

    Likewise, foreign remittances are tax exempt and widely used to repatriate illegally exported capital.

    Low taxes on immovable property also offer opportunities for tax evasion and money laundering.

  • Low property values causing huge tax losses in Pakistan

    Low property values causing huge tax losses in Pakistan

    KARACHI: A large sum of tax revenue has been lost due to unrealistic declaration of property values at the time of transaction.

    The World Bank in its recent report on Pakistan pointed out significant size of exemptions and concessions granted by the country every year.

    “Substantial exemptions also apply to property taxes, whereby properties below a certain size are exempted regardless of location, while revenue is also lost due to unrealistically low valuations used for taxation purposes,” the World Bank said in its recent report on Pakistan Revenue Mobilization Project.

    The report pointed out that The Capital Gains Tax (CGT) returns negligible receipts due to the zero rate applied to capital gains from the sale of immovable property after more than four years of ownership, and rates of 5-10 percent for properties sold after one to four years of ownership.

    The World Bank said that the efforts of tax authorities to broaden the tax base would involve scaling back the extensive tax expenditure from exemptions.

    “Multiple exemptions and discounted rates to select industries, economic actors, and economic activities (e.g. sugar, textiles, and fertilizer industries; ‘associations’ in the real estate sector; imports for infrastructure projects under the China- Pakistan Economic Corridor) are granted in each year’s budget law, which distort competition and economic actors’ incentives.”

    The report said that in FY2017/18, Pakistan’s tax expenditure (i.e., tax revenue foregone due to exemptions and concessional rates) was estimated at 2 percent of GDP, primarily due to exemptions from General Sales Tax (GST) and customs duties.

  • Prime Minister, World Bank CEO discuss economic, fiscal situation

    Prime Minister, World Bank CEO discuss economic, fiscal situation

    ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan on Friday met Ms. Kristalina Georgieva, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the World Bank discussed economic and fiscal situation on the sidelines of the second Belt and Road Forum (BRF), says a press release received here from Beijing, China.

    The prime minister was accompanied by the foreign minister and adviser on finance and adviser on commerce.

    The prime minister informed CEO, World Bank of the recent steps taken by the government for improving the economic and fiscal situation in the country.

    He appreciated the role played by the World Bank in regional connectivity, poverty alleviation, financial management, provisional projects, DASU and other infrastructure projects and ease of doing business.

    The prime minister also informed the CEO about the socio-economic uplift measures taken up by the government and creation of “Ehsaas” social welfare programme.

    The CEO of the World Bank pledged to further strengthen cooperation with Pakistan in the areas of disbursements programme lending and guarantees provision for raising external funds.