World Bank and CDPR hosted a session of Pakistan Development Policy Series 2021 webinar series: Closing the Agricultural Tax Gap.
The Pakistan Development Policy Series 2021 is a series of policy talks inviting discussion and debate on key reform areas critical to Pakistan’s economic, social and development growth.
This webinar focused on how Pakistan may close the Agricultural Income Tax Gap. While Pakistan’s large agrarian base contributes significantly to real sector and employment, the share of agricultural income tax in Pakistan’s total tax revenue falls short of its true potential.
The webinar was guided by the following points of discussion:
1. Implementing data-sharing mechanisms between the federal and provincial tax authorities to close existing loopholes on tax evasion which occur through misdeclaration of business income as agricultural income.
2. Strengthening provincial tax administration and empowering tax agents for improved maintenance of land records and enforcement of tax collection.
3. Introducing reforms to bring taxation of agricultural incomes at par with taxation of business incomes by accurately estimating potential income from land and equitably redistributing the burden of tax.
