Changes to provincial agriculture income tax laws, which aims to straighten out their rates with the federal corporate and personal tax government, was an easy part. Difficulty is an effective collection of tax. This is the part in which the coming IMF mission, which is examining progress on the benchmark goals of its funding program, is talking to the center and the provinces. Under the new legislation, the collection of agriculture income tax is scheduled to begin in July. But no provincial governments need the ability to impose new rates effectively or apparatus. Perhaps this matter is politically explosive for them, especially Punjab and Sindh, which contribute more than 90pc in the country’s farm output at any time to enforce the tax at any time. This is despite the fact that effective tax on agriculture revenue is the main state of the IMF bailout and is part of the overall reform in the tax system. “…[T]They will take steps to increase their efforts to collect taxes … [on] The loan agreement says agriculture income tax. “
How important it is to collect form tax for the IMF can be gauged from the fact that the fund review mission has organized an individual engagement and joint technical workshop with the provinces to advance the effective and uniform combination of this levy. Apparently, all the provinces are in the same boat as far as their preparations for collecting income tax of agriculture are concerned. Given the fact, it is not surprising that no provinces have ever prepared themselves for this task because it involves stiff resistance from the lobby of the farmers in the assemblies. Neither the PML -N nor the PPP will take the risk of losing their support by enforcing the law in the near future. In addition, the effective implementation of tax requires the capacity of the tax officials to evaluate the revenue of the fields, which varies from the region and the region and the crop, digitalization of ground records, etc. Although it is important for the IMF to insist on the initial implementation, it should also help develop a comprehensive framework for its implementation.
Dawn, appeared on March 14, 2025
