MQM asks government to bring agricultural sector into tax net

Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) has asked the government to make amendments to the Constitution, if necessary, to bring the exempted sector, ostensibly agriculture income, into the tax net from the next budget.
Talking to reporters after a briefing by the economic team on next year budget preparation process, Farooq Sattar of MQM said, "we wanted every source of income to be taxed and for this purpose if Constitutional changes are required should be made to bring the exempted sector into the tax net."
We have asked the economic managers to catch the tax evaders and bring them into the tax net whose lifestyle was not matching with taxes paid by them. He said that there are wealthy persons who don't have even the National Tax Number (NTN) but their life style was reflect the wealth the posses.
Farooq Sattar said that economic managers not only taken his party into confidence on budget making but also briefed them on overall economic situation and looming challenges to the economy. Sources said that the government was in consultation with coalition partners for seeking their support to implement the stalled Reformed General Sales Tax (RGST) either in original or amended form from the next budget. They said that "RGST is still on the agenda" and consultation with the political parties was in the process to implement it "either in original or amended form".
The economic managers have reportedly said that over 74 per cent of the revenue was being consumed by the three heads, debt servicing, defence, subsides, and the only option was to increase tax-to-GDP ratio to create fiscal space for investment in social sector. Sources said that a detailed briefing was also given to the political parties, Awami National Party (ANP) and MQM on overall taxes, direct and indirect, as well as provincial contribution in the tax-to-GDP ratio.
The economic managers reportedly said that agriculture sector weightage in the GDP was 21 per cent but its contribution in the tax-to-GDP was only one per cent. The highest contribution in terms of tax-to-GDP was 63 per cent by manufacturing sector which has 18 per cent weightage in the GDP. Export sector with 13 per cent weightage in the GDP was contributing 0.9 per cent in the taxes and services sector having 54 per cent weightage in the GDP was contributing 26 per cent in the taxes. The contribution of retail sector was not reflected in the presentation and economic managers reportedly said that implementation of RGST requires bringing the retail sector into the tax net.