Tax reform billed to boost growth
A Tax Reform Unit will be set up in the Finance Department.
ILLUSTRATION: JAMAL KHURSHID
LAHORE:
The government is planning to generate additional revenue through better tax management and by improving monitoring mechanisms.
According to executive summary of the provincial budget announced on Friday, the government has an ambitious plan to boost economic growth, provide public services, enhance infrastructure and generate employment.
These include reduced interaction between the tax collector and the tax payer, promoting a culture of payment and compliance and facilitation of the tax payer through modern banking options.
On June 30, the provincial debt would stand at Rs458 billion, or 3.0 per cent of the provincial gross domestic product (GSDP). This makes 1.6 percent of the gross domestic. Of Punjab’s total debt, 4.8 percent (Rs21.9 billion) is domestic and 95.2 percent (Rs436.1 billion) is foreign.
Punjab’s debt servicing in 2014-15 stood at Rs30.65 billion (or 3.2 percent of provincial revenues). The provincial tax collection improved slowly from 0.4 percent of the GDP in 2011 to 0.7 percent in 2014.
The Punjab government substantially increased its tax collection by more than 200 percent during 2010-2014.
In order to step up efforts for efficient tax collection, a Tax Reform Unit has been set up in the Finance Department which would be made operational this year.
The government has initiated a project for provision of clean drinking water (Punjab Saaf Pani Programme).
The first phase of the project will start in the south Punjab. The government allocated Rs70 billion for this project for the next three years.
The government has introduced Metro Bus System to improve public transport facilities. The Rawalpindi-Islamabad Metro Bus was completed in less than a year at a cost of Rs44 billion while work on the Multan Metro Bus system is underway. The government will start work on a 27-Km Orange Line Metro Train in Lahore during this year.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 14th, 2015.
The government is planning to generate additional revenue through better tax management and by improving monitoring mechanisms.
According to executive summary of the provincial budget announced on Friday, the government has an ambitious plan to boost economic growth, provide public services, enhance infrastructure and generate employment.
These include reduced interaction between the tax collector and the tax payer, promoting a culture of payment and compliance and facilitation of the tax payer through modern banking options.
On June 30, the provincial debt would stand at Rs458 billion, or 3.0 per cent of the provincial gross domestic product (GSDP). This makes 1.6 percent of the gross domestic. Of Punjab’s total debt, 4.8 percent (Rs21.9 billion) is domestic and 95.2 percent (Rs436.1 billion) is foreign.
Punjab’s debt servicing in 2014-15 stood at Rs30.65 billion (or 3.2 percent of provincial revenues). The provincial tax collection improved slowly from 0.4 percent of the GDP in 2011 to 0.7 percent in 2014.
The Punjab government substantially increased its tax collection by more than 200 percent during 2010-2014.
In order to step up efforts for efficient tax collection, a Tax Reform Unit has been set up in the Finance Department which would be made operational this year.
The government has initiated a project for provision of clean drinking water (Punjab Saaf Pani Programme).
The first phase of the project will start in the south Punjab. The government allocated Rs70 billion for this project for the next three years.
The government has introduced Metro Bus System to improve public transport facilities. The Rawalpindi-Islamabad Metro Bus was completed in less than a year at a cost of Rs44 billion while work on the Multan Metro Bus system is underway. The government will start work on a 27-Km Orange Line Metro Train in Lahore during this year.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 14th, 2015.