Senior business leaders and former presidents of the Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry have called for transferring Pakistan’s entire tax collection system to Artificial Intelligence-based automation, arguing that the Federal Board of Revenue’s current structure is fundamentally inefficient and should be replaced rather than reformed incrementally.
Speaking at a session organised under the Businessmen Panel on the federal budget and its impact on Pakistan’s economy, former FPCCI President Nasser Hyatt Magoon argued that rather than outsourcing airports, the government should instead outsource the Federal Board of Revenue itself. He claimed that out of the Federal Board of Revenue’s 36,000 employees, around 15,000 are engaged solely in issuing notices, arguing that the core problem lies not with the people working within the institution but with the system they operate under. He stressed that Pakistan’s tax structure needs to be fundamentally fixed and then handed over to Artificial Intelligence-based automation to improve efficiency and reduce the scope for manual interference. Magoon further alleged that the government has itself created a system that enables corruption, and criticised the scale of the Benazir Income Support Programme, claiming that the Rs. 853 billion currently being distributed through the scheme is increasing dependency rather than fostering genuine economic empowerment among recipients. He also claimed that international financial institution-driven austerity measures had pushed half the population into poverty, characterising official claims of economic stability as built primarily on continued borrowing rather than genuine structural improvement.
Former FPCCI President Zaki Ahmed Usman raised separate concerns about the Federal Board of Revenue’s engagement with the business community, stating that the institution routinely ignores written submissions from industry stakeholders. He highlighted that Pakistan’s textile sector, one of the country’s largest export industries, relies on imports for 60 percent of its inputs, arguing that the country’s persistent trade deficit cannot be meaningfully reduced without deliberately developing import-substitution industries domestically. Usman also noted that commercial banks in Pakistan continue to prefer lending to the government over private industry, with approximately half of the federal budget currently allocated toward interest payments, a dynamic he said is starving the productive industry of the credit it needs to expand and create jobs.
Usman called for the development of a long-term five-year industrial policy, paired with an improved security environment and a coherent import-substitution strategy aimed at reviving domestic industry and employment. He argued that strengthening local investment is a necessary precondition for attracting meaningful foreign investment, warning that Pakistan’s current high tax rates are actively crippling domestic production capacity. He further stated that the government’s reluctance to exit International Monetary Fund programmes is limiting Pakistan’s ability to fully leverage its global economic position, and urged policymakers to take concrete steps to discourage skilled young professionals from emigrating in search of better opportunities abroad.
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