The salaried class has paid Rs144 billion in income tax in this fiscal year, which is Rs90 billion more than the taxes paid by retail and realty sectors, highlighting a widening disparity under the International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme that has endorsed a 50% cut for real estate and a fixed tax scheme for retailers.
Official record of the past two fiscal years and provisional figures of the first quarter (July-September) of the current fiscal year suggested that at the completion of two years of the IMF programme, the tax contribution of the salaried class had multiplied.
But the influential trading and real estate sectors remained largely outside of the net, with the IMF either endorsing tax concessions for them or keeping its eyes closed. The IMF executive board had approved the three-year $7 billion loan package in September 2024, and the Fund’s staff is scheduled to complete its ongoing visit to Pakistan for the fourth review of the programme on Wednesday.
According to the FBR’s provisional tax collection data, income tax collection from the real estate sector dived 38% to a mere Rs35.2 billion in the first three months of the current fiscal year. It was Rs22 billion less than the comparative period of the last fiscal year after the government cut income tax for the realty sector by 50%, which the IMF also endorsed.
