Incidence of general sales tax in Pakistan : Latest estimate

The study provides estimates of overall incidence, as well as, the distribution and burden of General Sales Tax across household welfare levels by applying the latest available household consumption data. The analysis is carried out at national, regional and provincial levels; separately for food, non-durable and durable expenditure items. Effective GST rate across deciles of per capita expenditure and Kakwani Summary Index of tax progressivity are estimated for the year 2010-11. Results in general, indicate proportionality of GST incidence associated with some progressivity at the upper part of income distribution. The relative intensity in terms of magnitudes of Kakwani Index indicates regressivity in GST on food and progressivity on durable expenditure items. A simulation exercise is also carried out to observe the impact of non-uniform GST rates for expenditure commodity groups on distribution of the tax burden.