ISLAMABAD: The Inter­national Finance Corpora­tion has launched a reforms project in Punjab to reduce the compliance cost burden for the private sector and increase the GST on services tax net in the province through better compliance rate.

According to details released by the World Bank-affiliate IFC, the project activities will be carried out in three phases.

The project is targeting a conservative increase in the tax base since the Punjab Revenue Authority will be focusing its operations on large and medium businesses.

The project will be further verifying the breakdown of tax filing by size to fine tune baseline and target data.

Under the first phase, IFC is conducting mapping of the GSTS system in Lahore to identify serious high cost constraints, bottlenecks and barriers which private sector faces in complying with GSTS regulations.

The mapping will also consist of a high-level legal and policy review, capacity and training needs assessment, and high-level organisational structure review.

These reviews will lead to proposing the needed changes, updates in the legal and regulatory framework that governs the GSTS system in the Punjab.

According to the plan, the IFC project will also explore the conversion of taxes on professions into service tax.

It is expected that the IFC-assisted project will also develop a ‘taxpayer charter of rights’ and ‘inspector code of conduct’.

Published in Dawn February 7th , 2015

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