The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has raised concerns over disparities in tax compliance during the fiscal year 2023-24, particularly a significant gap between income and sales tax participation.
According to an FBR report, the country recorded 4.74 million active income tax filers, compared to just 234,193 sales tax filers, underscoring the need to enhance sales tax compliance.
Regional Tax Office (RTO) Lahore emerged as the top-performing region in both income and sales tax filing, with 809,131 active income tax filers and 41,783 sales tax filers.
RTO-II Karachi followed Lahore with 522,284 income tax filers, while RTO Multan reported 382,575 filers. For sales tax compliance, RTO-I Karachi ranked second with 20,979 filers.
Meanwhile, LTOs in Multan and Islamabad reported the lowest numbers, reflecting their focus on specialized taxpayer categories.
The report also noted that while urban centers dominate the tax base, smaller regions such as Sialkot have shown promising performance relative to their size.
However, the wide variance in active taxpayer-to-sales tax filer ratios across regions highlights the urgent need for targeted measures to expand sales tax compliance, particularly in areas with high income tax participation.
The FBR report emphasized that these figures demonstrate consistent growth in taxpayer engagement, reflecting the organization’s efforts to broaden the tax base and strengthen revenue collection.
The report also serves as a call to action for addressing compliance gaps to ensure equitable tax contribution across all regions.
