Fiscal consolidation should be as growth-friendly as possible. In general, tax base-broadening reforms are identified as growth-oriented reforms. To the extent that they reduce distortions to economic decisions on work, saving, investment and consumption, they should increase output and improve social welfare — Choosing a Broad Base–Low Rate Approach to Taxation, OECD Tax Policy Studies No. 19.

It is a matter of great tragedy that economic managers of successive governments in Pakistan, since independence, civil and military alike, never thought of using tax policy as a tool of economic development, and their sole stress on revenue targets at the time of making annual budgets has resulted in economic chaos and income/wealth disparities.

The Federal Government, with the approval of the Federal Cabinet, notified on February 13, 2025, on the dictates of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the establishment of the Tax Policy Office (TPO) in the Ministry of Finance to purportedly “build on the Government’s economic reform agenda”.

With the responsibility of directly reporting to the Minister of Finance & Revenue, the TPO is assigned the task “to lend support to the analysis of tax policies and proposals through data modelling, revenue and economic forecasting as well as the country’s international tax treaties and obligations”. A blog says an IMF technical mission is scheduled to assist the office in becoming fully operational. The mission will guide defining functions, developing standardised evaluation methods, and improving coordination between the TPO and the FBR.

The Struggle Of Pakistan’s Land Revenue Courts

The TPO remained dormant for a little over seven months, until the appointment of its first Director General on October 24, 2025, by the Prime Minister under the Special Professional Pay Scale (SPPS-1) for a two-year term. The delay confirms reluctance and resistance on the part of the Revenuecracy and its protectors to separate tax policy from revenue administration.

The appointments of directors made so far in the TPO, except for two from outside the revenue bureaucracy, hint that only the........

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