World Bank has recently pointed that tax to GDP ratio of Pakistan has dropped to below average in the last two years. The over-reliance on withholding the taxes is probably not right because it converts into a different type of sales tax.
A webinar was organized by Pakistan Development Policy Series of 2021 while collaborating with the World Bank in which this point was highlighted.
Meanwhile, Dr. Waqar Masood, the Special Assistant to PM on Revenues added that the government would be abolishing 40 withholding taxes while bringing them lower from 65 to about 25 taxes that would be starting from the upcoming budget for the year of 2021-2022.
Sebastian James, the Senior Economist of World Bank who had also worked on the issues of Pakistan taxation policy said that, “There is a need as to broaden up the narrow tax base instead of just burdening the existing ones. It is our serious concern that an average tax collection in Pakistan has uncertainly dropped in last fiscal year as compared to the similar economies.”
