Weeks after announcing the budget for fiscal year 2012, the government is being forced back to the drawing board after international creditors described its current fiscal framework ‘irrelevant’ – a direct consequence of the Federal Board of Revenue’s misstatement of last year’s revenue collection figures.
Background interviews with officials from international lenders and the government of Pakistan reveal that Islamabad is faced with a choice between revising targets to reflect a worsening fiscal deficit or levying taxes worth Rs50 billion.
Officials from global lenders say that the government’s stated target of restricting the fiscal deficit to 4% of the total size of the economy – or about Rs849 billion – is no longer realistic and called the Rs1,952 billion revenue collection target “unachievable”. They are also perturbed by the government’s refusal to end the untargeted subsidies in the power sector.
The government had estimated the 2012 revenue target assuming a 2011 base of Rs1,588 billion. The government has now admitted to having been able to collect Rs1,550 billion. The reduced base is what has caused lenders to raise questions about whether the 2012 target is achievable.
Finance ministry officials agree with the assessment of the creditors but have yet to make any decisions on the matter. One official said that a more realistic tax collection target is Rs1,882 billion, which would raise the budget deficit by Rs70 billion, or 0.33% of gross domestic product.
“The government is reviewing the situation and will take appropriate measures,” said Finance Secretary Waqar Masood.
The finance ministry is currently waiting on an assessment of the situation from the FBR. Salman Siddique, the FBR chairman, is likely to announce the government’s strategy on meeting revenue targets after the Chief Commissioners Conference – a meeting of senior tax officials – to be held on Thursday (today).
Siddique has been trying to assure the finance ministry that the current target is still achievable, but his credibility is in tatters after having been found to have misled the nation in an elated, late-night press conference on June 30 in which he had incorrectly announced that the government had met its revised revenue target.
International creditors, meanwhile, have begun asking more questions about the government’s assumptions about the deficit. Their main concern is the government’s persistent inability to decrease subsidies, particularly to the energy sector.
In the 2012 budget, the government had allocated Rs98 billion in subsidies to the power sector, but that figure assumes a deregulation of prices that has yet to happen. Each month that passes without that deregulation pushes the deficit up by Rs20 billion, or about 0.1% of GDP.
Other problem areas include the government’s assumption that it will get $1.4 billion in coalition support funds from the United States, a number that is highly questionable in light of worsening ties between Islamabad and Washington.
The government’s claims of generating Rs75 billion through the auction of 3G telecommunications licences, and Rs70 billion in arrears from Etisalat – which had bought 26% of Pakistan Telecommunications for $2.6 billion – have also been met with scepticism.
All of these ‘questionable’ assumptions may see the government miss its deficit target by Rs212 billion, or about another 1% of GDP.
“The government has yet to make up its mind about what it wants to do,” said one official. “Pakistan and the IMF are constantly in touch with each other about the next visit by IMF officials.”
Another finance ministry official said: “Pakistan has to place things in perspective. Setting low or high expectations for any IMF mission will not benefit Islamabad.”
Published in The Express Tribune, August 4th, 2011.
COMMENTS (2)
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This is a good report and I am immensely pleased that you are now using ratios which make more sense and give a sense of proportion to the problem.
The one point that needs to be taken into account is that the base has to be "normalized". Fudging or no, you have to take out all the special factors and gimmicks used (like advance tax) that inflate the base-year numbers.
I don't think the revised target is 4% of GDP. The provinces were supposed to come up with a surplus that would have been consistent with the consolidated deficit of 4% of GDP. I believe after their budgets, the number has already become 4.6% of GDP.
Just taking past performance into account, I would be inclined to think the fiscal out-turn for FY12, for various reasons and including what you have stated in this fine article will be near 7% of GDP. Remember the spending pressure yet to come as we draw closer to the elections other things being equal.
FBR is a ship without rudders.It is drifting.The officers are only interested in placement in what is term as "lucrative positions".
There is no strategy in Inland Revenue -direct taxes: even Return of Income for 2011 which are due on or before 31 August 2011 have not been placed on FBR website. Hence companies having accounting year closing on 31 Dec cannot file their returns. These companies include all Banks, Insurance companies, most of the multi-Nationals and also "persons" having presumptive income.
How can FBR even dream of meeting it's targets if even basics such as Return of Income are not made available on time.