The International Monetary Fund (IMF) in principle agreed a partial reduction in the tax rate for deductions on purchases of goods, following a request from the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR).
The new rate, which will be reduced by two percent, is expected to come into force in April 2025. However, the tax rate retained by the reservoir imposed on properties sellers will remain unchanged.
According to sources, a recent virtual meeting between Pakistani officials and the IMF has concluded with an agreement to reduce the rate of federal expansion rights for goods buyers. However, the tax on property sellers will always be collected at the existing rate.
In addition, the IMF also agreed with a reduction of 60 billion rupees in the tax revenue target for March 2025, as requested by the FBR.
The sources have indicated that this development would open the way to a consensus on the memorandum of economic and financial policies (MEFP) and an agreement at the level of staff, which should be finalized next week.
With regard to the reduction in property transactions, FBR had previously asked the IMF to reduce the tax rates for retained for buyers and sellers under articles 236c and 236. However, the IMF only agreed to reduce the tax rate of buyers under article 236 by two%.
In addition, the IMF has enabled the government to increase 1,257 billion PKR of banks to resolve the circular debt issue in the electricity sector.