\n Pakistan denies salaried workers carry disproportionate tax burden amid revenue push\n <\/p>\n
\n\tISLAMABAD: The government on Friday dismissed a widely held perception that salaried workers bear a disproportionate share of the tax burden, saying the salaried class contributed only about 5 percent of total revenues in the last fiscal year and that income-tax rates for middle- and higher-income earners were cut in the latest budget.<\/p>\n
\n\tThe remarks by Khurram Schehzad, adviser to the finance minister, come amid public concern over shrinking disposable incomes and the government\u2019s efforts to meet ambitious revenue-generation targets of Rs 14.13 trillion ($50.7 billion) under a $7 billion International Monetary Fund (IMF) loan program.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cDuring the last fiscal year, the salaried class contributed about 5 percent of total FBR revenues, and roughly 4 percent of total federal income,\u201d Schehzad said in a social media post, referring to the Federal Board of Revenue.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cLast year, the salaried class paid Rs 555 billion [$2 billion] in taxes, while wholesalers, retailers and traders contributed nearly Rs 700 billion [$2.5 billion] (Rs 693 billion [$2.48 billion]), which was a 100 percent increase from the previous year,\u201d he added. \u201cThese are verified, official figures.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tSchehzad said around 600,000 individuals in Pakistan fell in the salaried class.<\/p>\n
\n\tHe added that for those earning about Rs 600,000 ($2,155) a month, the income tax rate was reduced from 5 percent to 1 percent.<\/p>\n
\n\tFor individuals earning between Rs 250,000 ($889) and Rs 300,000 ($1,078) a month, it was lowered from 15 percent to 13 percent.<\/p>\n
\n\tSimilarly, those earning around Rs 250,000 are now required to pay 23 percent tax, down from 25 percent previously.<\/p>\n
\n\tPakistan has sought to modernize its revenue-collection system through automation, with the FBR integrating artificial intelligence to detect misreporting and curb tax evasion.<\/p>\n
\n\tThe country\u2019s tax-to-GDP ratio remains among the lowest in South Asia, about 10.6 percent in fiscal year 2024-25, below the 13 percent target set under the IMF program.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cThe government is not targeting anyone,\u201d Schehzad said. \u201cWe no longer have the luxury of avoiding tough decisions. We must do what\u2019s right for the country\u2019s long-term interest.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pakistan denies salaried workers carry disproportionate tax burden amid revenue push
ISLAMABAD: The government on Friday dismissed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":225907,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[1721,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-225906","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cricket","8":"tag-cricket","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225906","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=225906"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225906\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/225907"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=225906"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=225906"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=225906"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}