On Monday 11^th August 2025, Dr Raheal Ahmad Siddiqui, former Secretary to the Chief Minister, Punjab delivered a lecture on “Provincial & Local Taxation” to the 38^th Senior Management Course at the National Institute of Public Administration, Lahore.

Dr Raheal Ahmad Siddiqui discussed taxation as a core state function anchored in representation and accountability, and mapped Pakistan’s constitutional design: while all three tiers may levy taxes, the principal bases, income, customs, excises on goods, and sales of goods, remain federally centralized. Reviewing the post-18^th Amendment landscape, he noted the expanded provincial remit over sales tax on services, agricultural income tax, land and property levies, provincial excises, and the urban immovable property tax, aligning with the principle of subsidiarity, placing decisions as close to citizens as capacity allows. He outlined the institutional architecture (Boards of Revenue, Excise & Taxation Departments, Provincial Revenue Authorities) and the role of local governments in property rating and taxation.

Drawing on cross-provincial evidence, he distilled operational lessons: KPRA’s broadening coverage, rising collections, and low collection cost; and PRA’s sustained double-digit growth with about 80% of receipts concentrated in a limited set of sectors demonstrating the payoff from targeted compliance tools (e-invoicing/RIMS, market mapping). At the local level, he reviewed the menu of taxes and fees, property and transfer taxes, market fees, water and conservancy charges, approvals and licensing and stressed clear assignment and enforcement to limit overlap. He also highlighted the persistent underperformance of agricultural income taxation despite agriculture’s sizeable output share.

Concluding his talk, he flagged enduring hurdles, non-compliance, legal bottlenecks, weak data, and ease-of-paying frictions and urged survey-based baselines, interoperable systems, realistic targets, and coordinated regulation to broaden subnational fiscal space and public trust. The session concluded with a Q&A session.