Increase in provincial share in revenue critical for sustainable investment in human development: Experts.

ISLAMABAD -- Experts in taxation and economy have highlighted that tax-collection by provinces is critical to ensure sustainable investments in human development.

The speakers from diverse backgrounds shared this viewpoint at the webinar 'Towards a more innovative, effective and enabling provincial sales tax regime', jointly organized by the Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI) and Sub National Governance (SNG), said a press release here on Saturday.

Chairman, Punjab Revenue Authority (PRA), Zain Sahi, said that the primary reason for non-compliance in Punjab has been high rates of taxes. Therefore, in addition to nudge techniques, fiscal incentives were also introduced including reduction in rates. He highlighted that data from external sources is needed to identify taxpayers outside tax nets, but data analysis capabilities in the public sector also need improvements. Therefore, PRA is willing to share its data with others government entities on reciprocal basis.

Usman Khan, Innovation Lead, SNG Programme, informed the participants that the Sub-National Governance (SNG) Programme worked closely with PRA to deploy an intelligent system. It aims to make integration of all government data on tax-payers easier and other data commercial available in the public domain, and thus, to use cross-referencing to identify new taxpayers. It would also make the audit process of existing tax-payers smarter and more efficient. The system will use smart data techniques to identify the audit scope rather than a random selection, he added.

Dr Vaqar Ahmed, Joint Executive Director, SDPI, was of view that to sustain investments in human development and enabling infrastructure, own revenues of provinces must grow by almost 20 percent per annum in the medium term - a point also stressed in Punjab Growth Strategy. He said that this target can be achieved through having and using better data and evidence on tax avoidance and evasion, a...