IMF team arrives in Pakistan to discuss tax reforms, policy

Sources said that the technical experts’ delegation will hold consultations with the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) over the taxation policy for about one week.

The delegation will suggest measures to the FBR for amendments in the tax policy, sources said. “Introducing amendments in the tax policy aimed at expanding the tax net and collecting maximum tax,” sources said.

According to sources, the FBR and the IMF experts will jointly prepare the basic structure for introducing the scheme to retailers.

“One million more taxpayers will be added to the tax net to enhance the number of taxpayers to six million,” sources said.

“The IMF technical team and the FBR will jointly prepare amendments in the tax policy, which will come into force by the next budget,” according to sources. It was further learnt that the talks on the tax net will not affect the transfer of the loan tranche.

Earlier it emerged that the the IMF executive board is likely to approve the staff-level agreement with Pakistan on December 07.

The IMF executive board meeting will likely be held on December 7 and is expected to consider Pakistan’s case in the meeting.

Sources said that after the approval from IMF’s Executive Board around US$700 million will be available to Pakistan, bringing total disbursements under the program to almost US$1.9 billion.