Government Considers Rs780bn Enforcement Drive Instead of New Budget Taxes
The federal government is weighing enforcement-based revenue measures worth Rs780 billion as a substitute for introducing new taxes in the FY2027 budget, signalling a strategic shift toward compliance and documentation rather than rate increases to meet ambitious revenue targets.
The enforcement measures under consideration are understood to include intensified crackdowns on undeclared income, enhanced monitoring of the retail and wholesale trade sectors, stricter auditing of high-net-worth individuals, and expanded use of data integration between FBR and other government databases to identify tax evaders.
This approach aligns with the government's stated preference for widening the tax base through formalisation rather than imposing additional burdens on already-compliant taxpayers. The Rs780 billion target is substantial and would require a significant operational scaling-up of FBR's enforcement capacity.
The IMF has long urged Pakistan to broaden its narrow tax base, and enforcement-driven revenue collection is generally viewed by the Fund as more structurally sound than ad hoc tax rate increases. Whether FBR can realistically deliver enforcement revenues of this scale within a single fiscal year remains a key question for fiscal analysts.
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