International Journal of Accounting Research

Abstract

Sustainable Development through Effective Tax Governance

Ifaza Waheed

The objective of writing this paper is to share the two practical examples of the success stories that resulted in a developing country, Pakistan regarding boosting the tax revenues. The tax revenue figures of Punjab Revenue Authority (PRA), which is one of the Revenue Authorities in Pakistan, escalated vigorously by adopting effective measures in tax governance. The tax revenue trend of PRA enhanced exceptionally by developing and strengthening the capacities of Public Sector Withholding Agents in Pakistan through conducting awareness workshops for them in major cities. The numerical evidence shows an increase of 427% from the quarterly target assigned in the last quarter of the financial year 2016 in the public sector withholding tax figures of PRA. However, the untapped service sector of Beauty Salons in Pakistan has also shown an overwhelming tax payers’ response after these entrepreneurs were educated through conducting awareness workshops for them as well. The tax revenue collections of the Beauty Salons sector in the financial year 2016 has increased by 170.4% from the previous financial year. Though quite simple, this endeavour of The German Development Partner, a German technical Cooperation, has made a remarkable effort for achieving sustainable development through enhanced capacity building of the citizens. This successful venture of conducting awareness workshops for the taxpayers as well as for the withholding agents has proved to be effective as the department is now able to roll over this activity on its own at District and Tehsil levels. This the German Development Partner innovative measure for boosting revenue of sales tax in services sector in Pakistan is worth noticeable and can be adopted by any other developing country for promising results.