KARACHI: The World Bank has urged the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) to encourage the tax collection bodies of the provinces for generating more revenues.
The World Bank in its report suggests that provinces also need to be provided with incentives to increase their own revenues source. This can be done by making the criteria of the “provincial fiscal effort” in the Finance Award more effective, it added.
The World Bank has said in its recent report that the taxation authority in Pakistan is unevenly distributed between the national and provincial governments. It added that Pakistan’s fiscal challenges suggest that raising tax revenue be considered a joint responsibility of the federal and provincial governments.
According to the World Bank, currently, the provinces revenue generation has considerable room for growth as the sales tax on services has had comparatively better collection performance while the collection of taxes on agriculture income and property remains below par.
