The International Monetary Fund (IMF) considers the passage of the law for the introduction of agricultural income tax by all four provincial assemblies a landmark step and says that the Fund and Pakistan have agreed that a lot needs to be done on the ground for effective recoveries starting next year’s budget. The two sides will remain engaged over the next couple of months to address technical and procedural hiccups in aligning the four sub-federations.

In earlier briefings, IMF officials admitted that the progress in collecting agricultural income tax (AIT) would be gradual. According to a media report, the IMF mission was now more interested in the way forward on AIT collection and was engaging with provinces individually and jointly for clarity.

Listing various issues posing challenges to AIT collection, analysts at Dawn said it included capacity-building of revenue officials to assess farm incomes varying region to region and crop to crop and digitalisation of land records as a large part of the agricultural market functions outside the documented economy in cash. While it was important for the IMF to continue to insist on early enforcement, the analysts proposed that it must also help develop a comprehensive framework for implementation.

To quote Dr Hafiz A. Pasha, “Continued focus on the IMF Programme up to 2026-27 on........

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