Power Division shares data of 25 million consumers with Nadra

The Power Division has reportedly shared the data of 25 million electricity consumers with National Database & Registration Authority (Nadra) aimed at identifying individuals with taxable income who are still outside the tax net, well-informed sources told Business Recorder.
The Minister for Finance, Revenue and Economic Affairs, Dr Miftah Ismail had sent a letter to Minister for Power Division, Awais Ahmad Khan Leghari, a couple of months ago and sought his help in this regard. Ismail maintained that while the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) is already making efforts to expand the database of individuals with taxable income, a number of new measures are also being considered.
The Finance Minister argued that to give further impetus to government efforts, the Prime Minister has desired that the database available with the various public sector organisations and entities be shared with Nadra, he added.
The Power Division had sought consumers' data from Discos citing the reference of Dr Ismail's letter. After two months Discos shared consumers' data in discs which has been shared with Nadra, the sources added.
"We have sent the data of electricity consumers to Nadra as we received it from Discos," the sources said, adding that the database required to be analyzed includes billing data of electricity Distribution Companies
The sources said the Authority would use its specialized data processing capabilities and analyze these databases, in consultation with the FBR, to identify individuals with taxable income who are outside the tax net.
The sources maintained that Finance Minister had sought Discos' electricity billing data in soft form. The details of required data and contact details of focal persons in Nadra have also been shared with Discos.
"This step would contribute to greater resource mobilization for the federal as well as provincial governments," the sources quoted Ismail as saying in his letter.
In December 2017, Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi had directed the FBR to broaden the tax base through conversion of 80 million holders of Computerized National Identity Cards (CNICs) into National Tax Numbers (NTNs) and trace out transactions of potential 8 to 10 million non-filers with use of technology in order to bring them into the tax net.
According to an estimate Pakistan's tax capacity is 22.3 percent of GDP, which implies a tax revenue gap of about 10 percent of GDP as of 2016. Even though its estimated tax effort improved from 0.43 in 2011 to 0.56 in 2016, Pakistan is still significantly below the average of comparator countries (0.64) and high-income countries (0.76).
The IMF Board in July 2017 stated that in view of Pakistan's still low tax-to-GDP ratio, mobilizing additional tax revenues by broadening the tax base and strengthening tax administration would be the key to support fiscal consolidation and generate resources to step up priority spending.