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dc.contributor.authorPiracha, Mujtaba
dc.contributor.authorMoore, Mick
dc.coverage.spatialPakistanen
dc.date.accessioned2016-04-11T13:20:22Z
dc.date.available2016-04-11T13:20:22Z
dc.date.issued2015-03
dc.identifier.citationPiracha, M. and Moore, M. (2015) Understanding Low-Level State Capacity: Property Tax Collection in Pakistan. ICTD Working Paper 33. Brighton: IDS.en
dc.identifier.isbn978-1-78118-226-0
dc.identifier.urihttps://opendocs.ids.ac.uk/opendocs/handle/20.500.12413/11182
dc.descriptionproperty tax; tax administration; Pakistan; Punjab; corruption; informality; information asymmetry.en
dc.description.abstractThis paper is based on a detailed analysis of how field staff in the Excise and Taxation Department of the Punjab Provincial Government collect the (very low-yielding) property tax. In general, informal practices and relationships play a major role. More specifically, field staff enjoy considerable discretion in making key decisions about property tax assessment; the additional earnings that they are able to get from colluding with taxpayers are used in part to employ support staff and cover routine operating costs; and field-level staff are deeply rooted in the locality where they work, typically serving in one office for their entire career, and both monopolise and manipulate the information on the tax base and on collection performance that senior management would need to establish effective control of the system. In contrast more senior staff are transferred frequently between postings and have short time horizons in any particular posting, and senior staff have little capacity either to monitor and assess the performance of junior staff or to discipline them. It would, however, be misleading to attribute the poor performance of the property tax system principally to the behaviour of tax collection staff. There is considerable evidence that the low-level equilibrium that we observe stems in large part from the relative lack of interest of various levels of government in property tax revenue, and the priority they give to keeping the levels of government below them dependent or disempowered. There is potential to improve the property tax system, especially through wider use of information technology. Should there be adequate political support for reform outside the Excise and Taxation Department, implementation would be very difficult without taking account of the capacity of field staff to block change, and of the need to negotiate change with them.en
dc.description.sponsorshipDfID, NORAD.en
dc.language.isoenen
dc.publisherInstitute of Development Studiesen
dc.relation.ispartofseriesICTD Working Paper;33
dc.rightsUnderstanding Low-Level State Capacity: Property Tax Collection in Pakistan Mujtaba Piracha and Mick Moore ICTD Working Paper 33 First published by the Institute of Development Studies in March 2015 © Institute of Development Studies 2015 ISBN: 978-1-78118-226-0 A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library. All rights reserved. Reproduction, copy, transmission, or translation of any part of this publication may be made only under the following conditions: - with the prior permission of the publisher; or - with a licence from the Copyright Licensing Agency Ltd., 90 Tottenham Court Road, London W1P 9HE, UK, or from another national licensing agency; or - under the terms set out below. This publication is copyright, but may be reproduced by any method without fee for teaching or nonprofit purposes, but not for resale. Formal permission is required for all such uses, but normally will be granted immediately. For copying in any other circumstances, or for reuse in other publications, or for translation or adaptation, prior written permission must be obtained from the publisher and a fee may be payable. Available from: The International Centre for Tax and Development at the Institute of Development Studies Brighton BN1 9RE, UK Tel: +44 (0) 1273 606261 Fax: +44 (0) 1273 621202 E-mail: info@ictd.ac.uk Web: www.ictd/en/publications IDS is a charitable company limited by guarantee and registered in England (No. 877338)en
dc.rights.urihttp://www.ids.ac.uk/files/dmfile/IDSOpenDocsStandardTermsOfUse.pdfen
dc.subjectEconomic Developmenten
dc.titleUnderstanding Low-Level State Capacity: Property Tax Collection in Pakistanen
dc.typeIDS Working Paperen
dc.rights.holder© Institute of Development Studiesen
dc.identifier.externalurihttp://www.ictd.ac/publication/2-working-papers/26-understanding-low-level-state-capacity-property-tax-collection-in-pakistanen


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