‘Provinces bound to boost revenue’

KARACHI: Revenue collection is on target for the current fiscal year, and provinces are now legally bound to raise their own tax collection rather than lean on federal transfers, the adviser to the finance minister said, days before an International Monetary Fund (IMF) mission arrives in Islamabad on Sept 23 to review the country’s economic performance. In an interview published on Friday on the Pakistan & Counting YouTube channel, Khurram Schehzad said the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) had met its tax collection target for the first two months of the fiscal year. “If you look at the two months that have passed, July and August, we are on target for what we projected for the FY27,” Mr Schehzad said. “FBR has achieved exactly what was targeted.” The government’s revenue collection will be a prominent feature in discussions with the visiting IMF delegation. Mr Schehzad said a formal fiscal pact signed between the provinces and the federal government under the IMF programme now legally binds provinces to improve their own tax collection rather than rely on their guaranteed share of the federal divisible pool. “Provinces are legally bound to optimise their tax collections and contribute back to the consolidated fiscal framework,” he said. He pointed to legislation passed by all four provincial assemblies last year enforcing agricultural income tax — a structural benchmark under Pakistan’s IMF programme — as evidence the government had followed through on prior commitments. He also expressed hope the government would meet its collection target for the newly announced retail tax scheme. Published in Dawn, September 12th, 2026