{"id":35776,"date":"2024-05-10T13:14:48","date_gmt":"2024-05-10T08:14:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/?p=35776"},"modified":"2024-05-10T13:16:26","modified_gmt":"2024-05-10T08:16:26","slug":"imf-asks-pakistan-to-tax-pensioners-as-mission-lands-in-pakistan-for-monetary-talks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/business\/imf-asks-pakistan-to-tax-pensioners-as-mission-lands-in-pakistan-for-monetary-talks\/","title":{"rendered":"IMF asks Pakistan to tax pensioners as mission lands in Islamabad for monetary talks"},"content":{"rendered":"

ISLAMABAD:\u00a0<\/span><\/strong>The International Monetary Fund (IMF) urged the Pakistan government to tax civilian and military pensioners and withdraw income tax exemptions from various pension schemes.<\/span><\/p>\n

The demands came as the global\u00a0lender’s\u00a0technical experts\u00a0landed in Islamabad on Thursday to begin negotiations for two bailout packages\u00a0and budget preparations. The team will engage with Pakistani authorities starting today (Friday), with the remaining members, including Mission Chief Nathan Porter, expected to arrive next week, sources said.<\/p>\n

According to the local publication, if the government accepts the\u00a0<\/span>IMF\u2019s<\/span>\u00a0demand to tax retiring and retired individuals, it will receive additional income tax ranging from Rs22 billion to Rs25 billion per annum after withdrawing all tax exemptions, including those on various pension funds.<\/span><\/p>\n

READ MORE:\u00a0Pakistan introduces new voluntary pension scheme for govt employees, details inside<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

The IMF has asked Pakistan to recover additional taxes equal to 0.5% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) or around Rs600 billion from salaried and business individuals.<\/span><\/p>\n

The sources revealed that the IMF has recommended that Pakistan eliminate income tax exemptions enjoyed by pensioners and tax their pensions and gratuity starting from the new fiscal\u00a0<\/span>year,<\/span>\u00a0commencing in July. Additionally, the IMF proposes ending income tax credits for voluntary payments to\u00a0<\/span>workers\u2019<\/span>\u00a0participation funds.<\/span><\/p>\n

These measures may adversely affect\u00a0<\/span>Pakistan\u2019s<\/span>\u00a0already marginalized fixed-income population, which has been grappling with double-digit inflation for an extended period.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

READ MORE:\u00a0SBP confirms receiving $1.1bn loan tranche from IMF<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

The tax credit for contributions to approved Pension Funds might also\u00a0<\/span>be withdrawn<\/span>, generating approximately Rs2 billion in annual revenues.\u00a0<\/span>Additionally, any pension\u00a0<\/span>received by a Pakistani citizen<\/span>\u00a0from a former employer\u00a0<\/span>is proposed<\/span>\u00a0to be taxed, generating another Rs2 billion.<\/span><\/p>\n

Similarly, any income from a Pension Fund approved by the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP)\u00a0<\/span>is proposed<\/span>\u00a0to be taxed. If accepted, the pension funds of Punjab, Sindh, and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa may also be subject to income tax, potentially yielding Rs6 billion to Rs8 billion per annum.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ISLAMABAD:\u00a0The International Monetary Fund (IMF) urged the Pakistan government to tax civilian and military pensioners and withdraw income tax exemptions from various pension schemes. The demands came as the global\u00a0lender’s\u00a0technical experts\u00a0landed in Islamabad on Thursday to begin negotiations for two bailout packages\u00a0and budget preparations. The team will engage with Pakistani authorities starting today (Friday), with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":35780,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[16641,16640],"class_list":["post-35776","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-imf-pakistan-talks","tag-imf-to-tax-pensioners"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35776","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35776"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35776\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35780"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35776"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35776"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35776"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}