World Bank to help FBR strengthen tax system

E-Paper | April 25, 2026

ISLAMABAD: A World Bank task team is due next month to assist the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) in implementing a project aimed at strengthening the tax system and building capacity for the tax policy analysis.

The World Bank approved the project in April. Its objective is to support policy-informed decisions in domestic revenue mobilisation. It will help with producing annual comprehensive tax expenditure analysis and forecasting annual tax revenues of the FBR and provincial governments.

According to the World Bank, the grant agreement for the project was signed early in August after some delay because of additional consultants with the FBR and internal changes in the Economic Affairs Division.

The project aims to mobilise domestic revenues by helping policymakers make informed decisions. This requires strengthening the tax information technology system and building fiscal research and tax policy analysis capacity.

“The FBR needs to update data centres, including storage, servers and network equipment, and support the implementation of the change management plan.”

Published in Dawn, September 2nd, 2017

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abood

Sep 02, 2017 11:56am

Its easy tax all the riches with expensive cars and luxury properties.On exiting from country ask them NTN .On roads stop them and ask them for NTN.develop a system where it can be checked if filing was done for there taxes or not.

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AZAIN AHMED

Sep 02, 2017 12:49pm

goood job

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Usman

Sep 02, 2017 02:30pm

Capacity building should be meaningful and focus on results not just international visits with no impact. The major problem with tax department is unprofessional behavior with tax payers and widespread corruption. Taxpayers rights (which are supposedly legally binding) must be protected. Legitimate taxpayers should not be harassed and illegal money should not be demanded from them. FBR must treat people respectfully.

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alba

Sep 02, 2017 05:47pm

The real problem is that government officials do not have the courage to enforce the tax code.

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Ehtisham Ahmad

Sep 04, 2017 12:56am

Again? What's new after the failure of TARP1 and 2? Does the World Bank really have the answers to Pakistan's deep seated problems on the Fiscal side? Why cannot FBR just read the secret 1972 Tax Reforms Report that identified corruption; the brilliant 1985 Qamar ul Islam report; or the insightful Shahid Husain Tax Administration Reforms Report of the late 1990s? Or Ahmad and Stern 1991 and numerous papers before and after? Or does FBR and the Ministry of Finance dance to aid strings? Ehtisham Ahmad, LSE, Bonn and Zhejiang University

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muhammad yousuf saleem

Sep 04, 2017 11:36am

i don"t know that our fbr is so incompetent not to understand the tax system. our problem is that we are unable to include more citizens in tax system.our policy is only to increase revenue by indirect taxation.the people who file tax returns honestly, there is no credit for them..i feel the fbr try to sqeeze tax filers again and again. that is the main reason that people avoid filing tax return in pakistan. fbr will not learn anything from world bank.our gont. will pay them consultancy fee for nothing. the main problem in fbr is corruption.they try to tease people by sending notices and then make deals for themselves not for government.fbr keeps on increasing taxes for filers with same ratio as non filers.nobody has ever noticed that senior citizens having no business are paying to govt. at least 250000 rupees annual tax which is 10 percent and 15 percent also.

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muhammad yousuf saleem

Sep 04, 2017 11:44am

i am a senior citizen ,retired from abroad and paying 15 percent tax on my dividends. i made investment from abroad by foreign exchange through banks.i also pay indirect tax on petrol and many otherthings.nobody understands how to create a system that senior citizens should pay 50% less since stock dividend has your cnic no.and date of birth is mentioned on it.through cdc it is possible to check total income and limit can be put on income for 50% tax rebate.

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M Taimur

Sep 05, 2017 09:24am

@abood Everybody, rich or poor, should file tax as it happens all over the world (especially in developed countries) and then benefits should be provided according to the income. In our country those who file tax have to face harassment from FBR and the majority who do not file taxes face no penalty or punishment.

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