{"id":104049,"date":"2025-11-28T12:14:52","date_gmt":"2025-11-28T07:14:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.zameen.com\/news\/?p=104049"},"modified":"2025-11-28T12:14:57","modified_gmt":"2025-11-28T07:14:57","slug":"sifc-for-corporate-tax-exchange-rate-overhaul","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.zameen.com\/news\/sifc-for-corporate-tax-exchange-rate-overhaul.html","title":{"rendered":"SIFC for pragmatic exchange rate, corporate tax overhaul"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Islamabad: Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC) National Coordinator Lt Gen Sarfraz Ahmad on Thursday outlined a reform-focused roadmap aimed at making Pakistan\u2019s economy more competitive, stressing the need for a pragmatic exchange rate, lower interest rates, and a major overhaul of the corporate tax structure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Addressing leading businesspersons during the second day of the Dialogue on Economy organised by the Pakistan Business Council (PBC), Ahmad said Pakistan\u2019s stabilisation efforts had helped prevent further deterioration, but the economy still lacked a clear and actionable growth plan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said the current fiscal framework was overly dependent on taxation and disproportionately burdened the formal corporate sector. Pakistan\u2019s effective corporate income tax rate, after accounting for all applicable taxes, exceeds 50%, which he termed unsustainable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read: SIFC leads effort to boost bilateral investments with Saudi Arabia<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ahmad said the government was considering reducing the corporate income tax from 29% to 25%, abolishing the 10% super tax, eliminating the 15% inter-corporate dividend tax, and lowering the maximum individual tax rate from 45% to 25%. He added that the ad hoc nature of certain taxes had discouraged corporate expansion and encouraged businesses to split into smaller units to manage their tax exposure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere is an absolute consensus in the government that this excessive taxation format cannot take Pakistan forward,\u201d he said. \u201cAuthorities must correct it if we want sustainable growth.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The SIFC coordinator also urged a reduction in the policy rate, which he argued should not remain at 11% when inflation is falling. Monetary policy, he said, must align with economic realities to ease borrowing pressures on businesses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the exchange rate, Ahmad noted that artificial stabilisation measures had previously created distortions. He called for a market-driven, competitive exchange rate framework that recognises Pakistan\u2019s structural vulnerabilities without suppressing real market signals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Discussing growth priorities, he said the country\u2019s long-standing consumption-led and debt-driven model was no longer viable. Pakistan must shift decisively toward an export-led growth strategy rather than relying on protectionist policies or subsidies. He urged businesses to seek global competitiveness instead of depending on fiscal incentives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ahmad also pointed to low levels of foreign direct investment (FDI), noting that annual net inflows currently hover around USD 1.2 billion. He said FDI needed to at least double to USD 2.5 billion, but emphasised that foreign investment would rise only when local businesses increased their own investment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read: SIFC reforms drive historic economic recovery, survey reveals<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

He highlighted that much of the past decade\u2019s investment had flowed into the power sector, with significant dividend outflows, underscoring the need to prioritise export-oriented FDI and discourage consumption-led investment. Ahmad added that Pakistani investors were increasingly moving capital abroad, with profits earned domestically being reinvested in countries like Egypt and Saudi Arabia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said the SIFC\u2019s role, refined after the 2024 elections, now centres on identifying foreign investment opportunities, addressing policy bottlenecks, and facilitating businesses under a streamlined framework.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ahmad concluded that Pakistan\u2019s stabilisation efforts must now give way to a coherent, long-term growth strategy built around competitiveness, investment, and exports, rather than short-term fiscal fixes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Islamabad: Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC) National Coordinator Lt Gen Sarfraz Ahmad on Thursday outlined a reform-focused roadmap aimed at making Pakistan\u2019s economy more competitive, stressing the need for a pragmatic exchange rate, lower interest rates, and a major overhaul of the corporate tax structure. Addressing leading businesspersons during the second day of the Dialogue on Economy organised by the Pakistan Business Council (PBC), Ahmad said Pakistan\u2019s stabilisation efforts had helped prevent further deterioration, but the economy still lacked a clear and actionable growth plan. He said the current fiscal framework was overly dependent on taxation and disproportionately burdened the formal corporate sector. Pakistan\u2019s effective corporate income tax rate, after accounting for all applicable taxes, exceeds 50%, which he termed unsustainable. Read: SIFC leads effort to boost bilateral investments with Saudi Arabia Ahmad said the government was considering reducing the corporate income tax from 29% to 25%, abolishing the 10% super tax, eliminating the 15% inter-corporate dividend tax, and lowering the maximum individual tax rate from 45% to 25%. He added that the ad hoc nature of certain taxes had discouraged corporate expansion and encouraged businesses to split into smaller units to manage their tax exposure. \u201cThere is an absolute…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":100445,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15016],"tags":[63701,62552,65370,61415,69541,61959,4578,60626,15224,61435,62148,67919,34475,60375,69542],"persona":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-104049","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-developments","8":"tag-business-confidence","9":"tag-corporate-tax","10":"tag-economic-competitiveness","11":"tag-economic-reforms","12":"tag-exchange-rate-policy","13":"tag-export-led-growth","14":"tag-fdi","15":"tag-fiscal-policy","16":"tag-interest-rates","17":"tag-investment-climate","18":"tag-monetary-policy","19":"tag-pakistan-business-council","20":"tag-pakistan-economy","21":"tag-sifc","22":"tag-taxation-reforms","23":"cat-15016-id"},"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nSIFC for corporate tax, exchange rate overhaul - Zameen News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"On the exchange rate, Ahmad noted that artificial stabilisation measures had previously created distortions. He called for a market...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.zameen.com\/news\/sifc-for-corporate-tax-exchange-rate-overhaul.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"SIFC for corporate tax, exchange rate overhaul - Zameen News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"On the exchange rate, Ahmad noted that artificial stabilisation measures had previously created distortions. He called for a market...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.zameen.com\/news\/sifc-for-corporate-tax-exchange-rate-overhaul.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Pakistan Real Estate News & Pakistan Property News & Latest Updates - Zameen News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ZameenPK\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-11-28T07:14:52+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-11-28T07:14:57+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/news-cdn.zameen.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/SIFC.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1170\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"400\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Samra Zulfiqar\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@ZameenProperty\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@ZameenProperty\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Samra Zulfiqar\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"SIFC for corporate tax, exchange rate overhaul - Zameen News","description":"On the exchange rate, Ahmad noted that artificial stabilisation measures had previously created distortions. He called for a market...","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.zameen.com\/news\/sifc-for-corporate-tax-exchange-rate-overhaul.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"SIFC for corporate tax, exchange rate overhaul - Zameen News","og_description":"On the exchange rate, Ahmad noted that artificial stabilisation measures had previously created distortions. He called for a market...","og_url":"https:\/\/www.zameen.com\/news\/sifc-for-corporate-tax-exchange-rate-overhaul.html","og_site_name":"Pakistan Real Estate News & Pakistan Property News & Latest Updates - Zameen News","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ZameenPK","article_published_time":"2025-11-28T07:14:52+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-11-28T07:14:57+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1170,"height":400,"url":"https:\/\/news-cdn.zameen.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/SIFC.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Samra Zulfiqar","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@ZameenProperty","twitter_site":"@ZameenProperty","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Samra Zulfiqar","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https:\/\/www.zameen.com\/news\/sifc-for-corporate-tax-exchange-rate-overhaul.html#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.zameen.com\/news\/sifc-for-corporate-tax-exchange-rate-overhaul.html"},"author":{"name":"Samra Zulfiqar","@id":"https:\/\/www.zameen.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/9810bc80e0f6830dcb87310b88ef6293"},"headline":"SIFC for pragmatic exchange rate, corporate tax overhaul","datePublished":"2025-11-28T07:14:52+00:00","dateModified":"2025-11-28T07:14:57+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.zameen.com\/news\/sifc-for-corporate-tax-exchange-rate-overhaul.html"},"wordCount":511,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.zameen.com\/news\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.zameen.com\/news\/sifc-for-corporate-tax-exchange-rate-overhaul.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/news-cdn.zameen.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/SIFC.jpg","keywords":["business confidence","corporate tax","economic competitiveness","economic reforms","exchange rate policy","export-led growth","FDI","fiscal policy","Interest rates","investment climate","monetary policy","Pakistan Business Council","Pakistan economy","SIFC","taxation reforms"],"articleSection":["New Developments"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.zameen.com\/news\/sifc-for-corporate-tax-exchange-rate-overhaul.html#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.zameen.com\/news\/sifc-for-corporate-tax-exchange-rate-overhaul.html","url":"https:\/\/www.zameen.com\/news\/sifc-for-corporate-tax-exchange-rate-overhaul.html","name":"SIFC for corporate tax, exchange rate overhaul - Zameen News","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.zameen.com\/news\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.zameen.com\/news\/sifc-for-corporate-tax-exchange-rate-overhaul.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.zameen.com\/news\/sifc-for-corporate-tax-exchange-rate-overhaul.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/news-cdn.zameen.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/SIFC.jpg","datePublished":"2025-11-28T07:14:52+00:00","dateModified":"2025-11-28T07:14:57+00:00","description":"On the exchange rate, Ahmad noted that artificial stabilisation measures had previously created distortions. He called for a market...","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.zameen.com\/news\/sifc-for-corporate-tax-exchange-rate-overhaul.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.zameen.com\/news\/sifc-for-corporate-tax-exchange-rate-overhaul.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.zameen.com\/news\/sifc-for-corporate-tax-exchange-rate-overhaul.html#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/news-cdn.zameen.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/SIFC.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/news-cdn.zameen.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/SIFC.jpg","width":1170,"height":400},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.zameen.com\/news\/sifc-for-corporate-tax-exchange-rate-overhaul.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.zameen.com\/news"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"SIFC for pragmatic exchange rate, corporate tax overhaul"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.zameen.com\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.zameen.com\/news\/","name":"Pakistan Real Estate News & Pakistan Property News & Latest Updates - Zameen News","description":"","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.zameen.com\/news\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.zameen.com\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.zameen.com\/news\/#organization","name":"Zameen.com","alternateName":"Zameen","url":"https:\/\/www.zameen.com\/news\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.zameen.com\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/news-cdn.zameen.com\/wp-content\/upload\/2015\/09\/Zameen.com_-_Logo.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/news-cdn.zameen.com\/wp-content\/upload\/2015\/09\/Zameen.com_-_Logo.png","width":600,"height":300,"caption":"Zameen.com"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.zameen.com\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ZameenPK","https:\/\/x.com\/ZameenProperty","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/zameenpk\/"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.zameen.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/9810bc80e0f6830dcb87310b88ef6293","name":"Samra Zulfiqar","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/news-cdn.zameen.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Samra-96x96.jpg","url":"https:\/\/news-cdn.zameen.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Samra-96x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/news-cdn.zameen.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Samra-96x96.jpg","caption":"Samra Zulfiqar"},"description":"Samra Zulfiqar, a real estate analyst at Zameen.com, is passionate about finding projects that offer buyers the best returns. Her keen insights spotlight the market\u2019s most promising opportunities.","url":"https:\/\/www.zameen.com\/news\/author\/samra"}]}},"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zameen.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104049","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zameen.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zameen.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zameen.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zameen.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=104049"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.zameen.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104049\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":104050,"href":"https:\/\/www.zameen.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104049\/revisions\/104050"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zameen.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/100445"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zameen.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104049"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zameen.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104049"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zameen.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104049"},{"taxonomy":"persona","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zameen.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/persona?post=104049"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}