Why is it so Difficult to Implement a GST in Pakistan

Abstract

This paper discusses the efforts by the Government of Pakistan to implement a General Sales Tax (GST). First, a history of Pakistani tax reform efforts is presented along with the reforms recommended by the National Taxation Reforms Commission. After this, the design and implementation of the GST is discussed followed by an analysis of the political economy and provincial issues that arise in the process of implementing the GST. Finally, the paper discusses various proposals regarding the determination of the base for the GST. The paper concludes that the splitting of the GST by sectors, given the perspective that the 1930’s style sales tax, is not sensible, and the Pakistani formulation is more unstable than the assignment of the GST on goods.