Pakistan adopts tax-hiking budget as it courts IMF deal

Cash-strapped Pakistan adopted a $68 billion budget laced with tax-raising measures Friday as it seeks to secure a new bailout from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) after almost defaulting last year.

In a nation of over 240 million people and where most jobs are in the informal sector, only 5.2 million filed income tax returns in 2022.

During the 2024-25 fiscal year which starts July 1, the Pakistan government aims to raise nearly $46 billion in taxes, a 40 percent increase from the previous year.

To boost tax collection, the government among other measures, blocks mobile phone SIM cards and also restricts non-filers from travelling abroad.

"There are no sacred cows, everyone has to pay their taxes," finance minister Muhammad Aurangzeb said earlier this month.

Income and sales tax takings are both set to increase, as are petroleum levies during the fiscal year -- measures likely to undermine the popularity of a new coalition government headed by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.

"It is a fact that we had to prepare the budget jointly with IMF because the prevailing circumstances were requiring it," Sharif told parliament on Tuesday.

The South Asian nation has initiated discussions with IMF for a new multi-billion dollar loan agreement -- its 24th bailout in more than six decades -- to support its economic reform programme.

While around 40 percent of the population already lives below the poverty line, the World Bank said in April it feared that 10 million additional Pakistanis would fall below this threshold.

"Existing taxpayers face new tax measures while the undertaxed remain unburdened," Ali Hasanain, associate professor of economics at the Lahore University of Management Sciences said to AFP.

The austerity policies "will accelerate the exodus of highly skilled workers," said Hasanain.

Islamabad also aims to reduce its fiscal deficit by 1.5 percent to 5.9 percent in the coming year, heeding another key IMF demand.

Analysts say Pakistan is encumbered by public debt -- $242 billion at the end of March -- and is being forced to take new loans to cover interest payments.

The last loan -- a nine-month $3 billion IMF deal -- proved a lifeline, in part because it bolstered other nations' confidence in their ability to unlock their coffers and offer additional loans.

But it came on condition of unpopular austerity measures, including an end to subsidies cushioning consumer costs.