ISLAMABAD: After decades of lapses, the government on Friday took the first step to separate tax policy from revenue admi\u00adnistration and notified the creation of Tax Policy Office (TPO), hea\u00add\u00aded by the finance minister.<\/p>\n
The notification was issued following the federal cabinet\u2019s approval on January 13.<\/p>\n
The TPO, to be set up at the Ministry of Finance building, was part of the \u201cgovernment\u2019s economic reform agenda,\u201d according to the Finance Ministry\u2019s notification.<\/p>\n
The TPO will devise tax policies and proposals thro\u00adugh data modelling, revenue and economic forecasting, and the country\u2019s international tax treaties and obligations, it added.<\/p>\n
The ministry\u2019s notification on Friday said appointments to the TPO will be made with appro\u00adval of the Establishment Division and Finance Division on terms and conditions prescribed by the government.<\/p>\n
Successive governments have announced plans \u2014 advised by international lenders \u2014 to separate tax policy and collection to ensure that the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) only focuses on revenue collection.<\/p>\n
However, a practical move towards this bifurcation remained elusive, mainly due to resistance from FBR.<\/p>\n
Under the ongoing $7bn<\/p>\n
Extended Fund Facility of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Pakistan had given an undertaking to set up TPO under supervision of the finance minister to ensure it had sufficient teeth for policy implementation, according to IMF documents.<\/p>\n
Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb had given a written committee to the IMF to set up the TPO in the first quarter of fiscal year 2025.<\/p>\n
However, it was delayed till the third quarter and notified just ahead of the IMF team\u2019s visit to review the programme.<\/p>\n
Under the commitment with FBR, the creation of TPO will enable it to concentrate on detailed revenue analysis.<\/p>\n
The revenue authority\u2019s input would, however, be sought by TPO on policy matters.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will equip the TPO with robust analytical capabilities, including expertise in data modelling and data analytics, revenue forecasting, and assessments of tax expenditure reviews,\u201d the government said in its undertaking to the IMF.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis will enable a thorough analysis of the distributional and financial impacts of tax measures.\u201d<\/p>\n
It added that an advisory board for tax policy issues, comprising external experts and stakeholders, would be formed to support and guide the TPO.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
ISLAMABAD: After decades of lapses, the government on Friday took the first step to separate tax policy from revenue admi\u00adnistration and notified the creation of Tax Policy Office (TPO), hea\u00add\u00aded by the finance minister. The notification was issued following the federal cabinet\u2019s approval on January 13. The TPO, to be set up at the Ministry […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5623,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5622","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5622","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5622"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5622\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5624,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5622\/revisions\/5624"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5623"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5622"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5622"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5622"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}