Tax Policy Group- a major organ of the Tax Reform Co-ordination Group (TRCG), has decided to minutely analyse the tax models of Sri Lanka, Turkey, Brazil and Taiwan besides other states where tax-to-GDP ratio has took a major jump to devise a long-term tax policy for Pakistan with the aim to increase revenue collection trajectory.
Sources told Business Recorder here on Thursday that the meeting of the Tax Policy Group headed by Arshad Zuberi was held here at FBR House. The meeting focused on long terms tax policies, budget proposals to be finalised by March/April and vision of two taxes taken forward.
The meeting was attended by Secretary General Revenue Division Asrar Rauf, former FBR Chairman Abdullah Yousuf, Chairman Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) Muhammad Ali and leading tax consultant Shabbar Zaidi and Ali Jameel. FBR Member Strategic Planning and Statistics Mahmood Alam and DG SP&R were also present.
According to sources, the Tax Policy Group would conduct an in-depth study of the best tax administrations where tax-to-GDP ratio has shown major increase during the last few years. Referring to certain countries, an official said that the tax-to-GDP ratio in Sir Lanka was 14 percent and Turkey 29.3 percent. The objective of the study is to analyse reasons behind such a major increase in Tax-to-GDP ratio in these countries. "We are interested to see that what measures have been taken by these countries which we have yet not taken in our tax environment for raising the tax-to-GDP ratio," a participant said.
The Tax Policy Group also discussed the existing tax gaps and proposals to reduce the gap between the potential and actual payment of taxes. In this connection, the sub-group of the TRCG discussed various proposals for reduction in the tax gap.