Tax Reforms in Punjab
Research Report
Tax Reforms in Punjab
Vaqar Ahmed
Ather Naqvi
Copyright Date: Aug. 1, 2016
Published by: Sustainable Development Policy Institute
Pages: 8
OPEN ACCESS
https://www.jstor.org/stable/resrep02860
Table of Contents
Export Selected Citations Export to NoodleTools Export to RefWorks Export to EasyBib Export a RIS file (For EndNote, ProCite, Reference Manager, Zotero, Mendeley...) Export a Text file (For BibTex)
Select / Unselect all
  1. Front Matter
    Front Matter (pp. [i]-[ii])
  2. Table of Contents
    Table of Contents (pp. 1-1)
  3. 1. Background
    1. Background (pp. 2-2)

    Provinces are gearing up for an active resource mobilization after the additional powers allowed to them under the 18th Constitutional Amendment. The Punjab has three revenue authorities namely: Punjab Revenue Authority (PRA), the Board of Revenue (BoR), and the Excise and Taxation Department (E&TD). The provincial government has suggested in the medium term the merger of all revenue collecting bodies.

    Currently, E&TD is responsible for collecting Urban Taxes, e.g. Property Tax and Motor Vehicle Tax. The BoR operates in rural areas and collect land revenue, agricultural income tax, and stamp-duties. Following the 18th Amendment, the Punjab has created its own...

  4. 2. Revenue Collection: Situation Analysis
    2. Revenue Collection: Situation Analysis (pp. 2-3)

    The provincial government missed its tax collection target of Rs164.5 billion for the year, 2014-15, with a 39 per cent shortfall. This shortfall has been attributed to weak forecasting capacity, obsolete methods of taxing incomes from agriculture and property, and a collection mechanism that suffers from rent-seeking (Ahmed 2015, Ahmed 2015b).

    The White Paper on Budget 2015-16 makes the confession that “currently, the Punjab government has an incomplete picture of its tax system… while the main hindrance is a lack of capacity, there is also a lack of reliable data — economic and sectoral data as well as taxpayer data,...

  5. 3. Desired Reforms
    3. Desired Reforms (pp. 4-5)

    As part of this research exercise, SDPI team interviewed government officials, business community, law makers, civil society and academia in order to prioritize the key reforms that can fetch greater revenues with an additional objective of ensuring basic equity principles.

    The legal status of PRA needs to be approved and strengthened by the provincial parliament and appropriate cover given to its activities. The issue to double taxation, where Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) is found to be charging excise on services-activities already paying GST to the province, may be resolved. There are assessment problems which can be resolved through a...

  6. 4. Way Forward
    4. Way Forward (pp. 5-5)

    In the coming days, provincial revenue authorities are likely to establish a baseline of tax bases for each of the taxes. They should be able to introduce IT-based business processes for tax compliance to reduce human contact between taxpayers and payee. The GIS-based validation of land holdings, commercial wholesale and retail activity may be pursued. A serious effort may be made to improve the taxpayers’ information regarding provincial taxes, ideally through onewindow operation. The low yielding taxes such as cotton fee, entertainment tax and tax on property transfers may be abolished.

    The above-mentioned will require a reform of the tax...

  7. 5. References
    5. References (pp. 6-6)