Home »Business and Economy » Pakistan » PML-N government may not pursue new NFC Award: Pasha

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  • Apr 21st, 2017
  • Comments Off on PML-N government may not pursue new NFC Award: Pasha
Professor Emeritus and former Finance Minister Dr Hafiz Pasha, who played a major role in the finalization of the 6th NFC Award, said that the ruling PML-N government may not pursue a new NFC Award.

Speaking at the occasion of the 2nd Consultative Session of the National Finance Commission Award organized by PRIME Institute, he called for full implementation of the 18th amendment, avoiding multiple taxation by different levels of government on the same tax base and harmonization of the tax rate among the provinces to avoid competition for the same tax base.

Dr Pasha said that it is imperative that the horizontal sharing formula of the NFC Awards be updated after the census. He called for creating incentives not only for resource generation but also for the allocation of resources. He also proposed that conditional grants should be provided to those working on priority areas of the Federation such as education and health.

Former Finance Secretary Abdul Wajid Rana, who was moderating the discussion, revealed that India has now introduced their 14th NFC award, while Pakistan is only on its 7th Award. He pointed out that after the 18th amendment, the share of provinces could not be lower than what has been determined in the 7th NFC Award.

Dr Ikramul Haq, author of the book Towards Flat, Low Rate, Broad and Predictable Taxes, said that taxation rights are not distributed fairly between the provinces and the center. He noted that disputes between provinces and the center arise because provinces are not allowed autonomy to determine tax policy.

He called for a clear demarcation of jurisdiction to avoid conflicts over revenue between the federating units and the center. He expressed his concern at the immense level of double taxation in the system, and called for major sales tax reform.

Scholar and businessman, Najaf Yawar, during the question answer session said the Pakistani government needs to identify the optimal level of taxation. He said that if provinces were to compete on tax rates, smaller provinces would choose low rates to attract investment.

Legal academic at LUMS and former president of the Pakistan Bar association, Zafar Kalanauri, said that because Pakistan has a low literacy rate, the tax system needs to be extremely simple for compliance.

Saad S. Khan of National School of Public Policy was of the opinion that the allocations made in the current NFC award are not inequitable. He cited that Balochistan's budget has increased over 1000 times since 1982, much faster than any other province. He said that apart from NFC Award revenues, smaller provinces also receive a greater share of development spending.

Business community representative Zahid Hussain was of the opinion that 16 percent is not a viable rate for sales tax, and noted that many consumer products lose value for buyers at such a high rate. People who are not even liable to pay tax are paying taxes in the form of withholding taxes, he said.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2017


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