IMF Pakistan tax reforms have put renewed pressure on Islamabad after the lender said farm income tax collection remained below expectations despite changes introduced in 2025.
The International Monetary Fund said Pakistan’s agriculture sector contributes 24.6% to GDP but pays only 0.3% in taxes.
The Fund urged provinces to use the Federal Board of Revenue data to enforce agricultural income tax collection.
The IMF also identified textile, real estate and business services as among the least-taxed sectors of the economy. It said separate provincial GST systems had complicated compliance and weakened enforcement.
The lender said a 35% improvement in sales tax recovery could lift collections to Rs2.1 trillion. It also called for mandatory digital invoicing and an effective production monitoring system to widen documentation.
The IMF said the FBR’s new audit manual and audit policy were expected to be issued by August 2026. The IMF staff report also refers to a proposed end-August 2026 structural benchmark for an audit manual and audit policy that centralises audit case selection through a compliance risk management system.
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The Fund advised Pakistan to impose stricter requirements for retailer registration and to consider limits on financial transactions by non-filers in the next federal budget.
The IMF said Pakistan’s economy showed signs of stability under the loan programme. Its country data page projects Pakistan’s 2026 real GDP growth at 3.6% and consumer price inflation at 7.2%.
