Kardar terms RGST as revenue-booster

SBP Governor addresses PIDE Conference

ISLAMABAD: Governor of State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) Shahid H Kardar on Wednesday called for raising tax revenue by implementing Reformed General Sales Tax (RGST) for the economic prosperity of the country.

“The country desperately needs a tax structure in order to improve its economy. The RGST can be the best option but unfortunately our politicians are not convinced enough to pass it into a law”, Kardar said, adding RGST was a very progressive one and it would benefit most segments of the society.
He stated this while chairing a session of a three-day annual general meeting and conference of Pakistan Society of Development Economists (PSDE) here at a local hotel in which renowned economists from across the world participated. The conference has been organised by Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE).
SBP Governor also expressed his concern over low collection of the property-taxes especially by the provinces which were affecting the overall collection of the tax revenue.

He said provincial governments were not doing well in collection of tax from different sectors especially in property and agriculture sectors.
Meanwhile, addressing the gathering, Paul Ross, mission chief of International Monetary Fund, Islamabad said government must have to raise the level of its national savings which could generate resources for the development of the country.
He expressed his resentments over the low tax revenue in the country, and said that the government should raise the tax revenue by introducing an equity based taxation system.
Paul said that decentralisation of the tax collection system could achieve more success and without cooperation between provinces and federal government the country could not generate significant tax revenues.
Professor Vito Tanzi, former Director of International Monetary Fund, USA said that the responsibility of tax collection should be assigned to the local governments.
In this regard, he said, the local governments should be given enough power and authority to impose the taxes. Dr Hafeez A Pasha, Dean Beaconhouse National University, stressed on the need of equal distribution of funds on the inter-region as well as intra region level. He said that unfortunately in the country there was a clear disparity in resources distribution in the provinces.-APP