Dubious
RETIRED MOD
- Joined
- Jul 22, 2012
- Messages
- 37,717
- Reaction score
- 80
- Country
- Location
Farhan Bokhari in Karachi
Farm fiddle: an amnesty on tax for agricultural land allows wealthy Pakistanis to game the system
As an industrialist in Pakistan’s southern port city of Karachi recounts his woes, from frequent power cuts to a shortage of trained workers, his accountant barges in with a question.
“Sir, how much should we earn from the farm this year?”
“Let me see how much we need to earn from the farm and get back to you,” the industrialist replies.
The encounter provides a glimpse of one of Pakistan’s toughest economic challenges: reforming its chronically dysfunctional tax-collection system.
Only about 0.5 per cent of Pakistan’s 200m people pay income tax, compared with 2-3 per cent in India and 20 per cent in China, according to the OECD.
Compliance with income tax payments is so poor in parts of the country that the cost of running local tax offices exceeds the tax they collect.
“Frankly, the government could end up saving money in some of our remote areas if the tax offices there were shut down today,” says one government official.
The problem has not been solved by a plummeting poverty rate, which fell from 65 per cent in 1991 to 13 per cent in 2011 according to UN figures released last week.
Huge numbers of affluent Pakistanis dodge their tax by colluding with corrupt tax officials to understate their incomes, exploiting loopholes, or both.
In one of the most notorious ploys, people buy farmland — for which there is a tax amnesty — then overstate their agricultural income and understate earnings from other business interests.
The country’s parliament, dominated by landowners, has blocked attempts by successive governments to remove this loophole.
A December 2013 study by the Centre for Investigative Reporting in Pakistan reported that almost half of the country’s 1,070 lawmakers in provincial and national assemblies paid no tax the previous year. More than 10 per cent did not even possess tax numbers.
The tax problem, analysts say, risks undermining Pakistan’s recent run of good economic news.
Business confidence is on the rise, economic growth has been recovering, hitting 4.1 per cent last year, and official liquid foreign reserves have grown almost fourfold in the past year to $12.5bn. Last month the central bank cut its benchmark interest rate 1 percentage point to 7 per cent and consumer price inflation is about 2 per cent, having been stuck above 8 per cent only a year ago.
But plunging oil import costs have played a large part in the upturn. The International Monetary Fund says decisive action on taxation is needed to back up this good fortune.
“The tax to gross domestic product ratio is still very low at 10-11 per cent,” says Harald Finger, the IMF official leading discussions with Pakistan on the next instalment of a $6.6bn loan programme. “For vibrant emerging markets, this should be in the 15-20 per cent range.”
Ishaq Dar, the finance minister preparing to present his annual budget on Friday, hails the government’s early success in broadening the tax base, boasting a rise of 200,000 taxpayers since mid-2013 to a total of about 900,000.
Officials say people have been targeted for whom there was clear evidence of wealth, for example frequent foreign travel.
Mr Finger, however, believes there is plenty of room for improvement. “The Federal Board of Revenue is bringing in 100,000 new taxpayers every year. We are at the lower end of what is achievable.”
And government critics such as Muhammad Yaqub, a former governor of Pakistan’s central bank, agree that more needs to be done. “Progress in collection of more taxes will only be sustained if there are structural reforms,” he says.
Meanwhile, the country’s ruling elite show few signs of backing reform, according to western economists in Islamabad. “The political system is controlled by people who neither consider tax collection a big priority nor want to do anything beyond lip service,” says one.
Back in Karachi, the industrialist does not expect his own tax practices to change in the near future. “Using a farm income to avoid paying your dues is a common practice,” he says. “Pakistan’s ruling class must first change its behaviour before they expect the public to follow.”
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/f8e27d2a-034c-11e5-8333-00144feabdc0.html#axzz3c1q9yY8K
Farm fiddle: an amnesty on tax for agricultural land allows wealthy Pakistanis to game the system
As an industrialist in Pakistan’s southern port city of Karachi recounts his woes, from frequent power cuts to a shortage of trained workers, his accountant barges in with a question.
“Sir, how much should we earn from the farm this year?”
“Let me see how much we need to earn from the farm and get back to you,” the industrialist replies.
The encounter provides a glimpse of one of Pakistan’s toughest economic challenges: reforming its chronically dysfunctional tax-collection system.
Only about 0.5 per cent of Pakistan’s 200m people pay income tax, compared with 2-3 per cent in India and 20 per cent in China, according to the OECD.
Compliance with income tax payments is so poor in parts of the country that the cost of running local tax offices exceeds the tax they collect.
“Frankly, the government could end up saving money in some of our remote areas if the tax offices there were shut down today,” says one government official.
The problem has not been solved by a plummeting poverty rate, which fell from 65 per cent in 1991 to 13 per cent in 2011 according to UN figures released last week.
Huge numbers of affluent Pakistanis dodge their tax by colluding with corrupt tax officials to understate their incomes, exploiting loopholes, or both.
In one of the most notorious ploys, people buy farmland — for which there is a tax amnesty — then overstate their agricultural income and understate earnings from other business interests.
The country’s parliament, dominated by landowners, has blocked attempts by successive governments to remove this loophole.
A December 2013 study by the Centre for Investigative Reporting in Pakistan reported that almost half of the country’s 1,070 lawmakers in provincial and national assemblies paid no tax the previous year. More than 10 per cent did not even possess tax numbers.
The tax problem, analysts say, risks undermining Pakistan’s recent run of good economic news.
Business confidence is on the rise, economic growth has been recovering, hitting 4.1 per cent last year, and official liquid foreign reserves have grown almost fourfold in the past year to $12.5bn. Last month the central bank cut its benchmark interest rate 1 percentage point to 7 per cent and consumer price inflation is about 2 per cent, having been stuck above 8 per cent only a year ago.
But plunging oil import costs have played a large part in the upturn. The International Monetary Fund says decisive action on taxation is needed to back up this good fortune.
“The tax to gross domestic product ratio is still very low at 10-11 per cent,” says Harald Finger, the IMF official leading discussions with Pakistan on the next instalment of a $6.6bn loan programme. “For vibrant emerging markets, this should be in the 15-20 per cent range.”
Ishaq Dar, the finance minister preparing to present his annual budget on Friday, hails the government’s early success in broadening the tax base, boasting a rise of 200,000 taxpayers since mid-2013 to a total of about 900,000.
Officials say people have been targeted for whom there was clear evidence of wealth, for example frequent foreign travel.
Mr Finger, however, believes there is plenty of room for improvement. “The Federal Board of Revenue is bringing in 100,000 new taxpayers every year. We are at the lower end of what is achievable.”
And government critics such as Muhammad Yaqub, a former governor of Pakistan’s central bank, agree that more needs to be done. “Progress in collection of more taxes will only be sustained if there are structural reforms,” he says.
Meanwhile, the country’s ruling elite show few signs of backing reform, according to western economists in Islamabad. “The political system is controlled by people who neither consider tax collection a big priority nor want to do anything beyond lip service,” says one.
Back in Karachi, the industrialist does not expect his own tax practices to change in the near future. “Using a farm income to avoid paying your dues is a common practice,” he says. “Pakistan’s ruling class must first change its behaviour before they expect the public to follow.”
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/f8e27d2a-034c-11e5-8333-00144feabdc0.html#axzz3c1q9yY8K
