Pakistan’s salaried class is facing a heavy burden from taxes, with tax payments for the past fiscal year reaching Rs285billion.
In the first seven months of the current fiscal year, the collection has already matched this amount. This made the salaried class the third-largest contributor to the national tax pool in Pakistan.
The tax rate for this group in the current fiscal year had escalated to between 35 to 40 per cent.
Economic experts had suggested that the government introduce tax relief, recommending an exemption on income up to Rs1.2million, similar to India’s model.
Experts had also proposed that the monthly income threshold for tax exemption should be raised from Rs60,000 to Rs120,000.
Additionally, the experts pointed out that the base interest rate, which had previously been 22 percent, has now dropped to 12 per cent.
They recommended that the savings from reduced interest payments on loans should be used to provide relief to citizens.