Pakistan has one of the lowest tax-to-GDP ratios in the world. Publicly available data show that less than 1 percent of the population file their income tax return, and more than 60 percent of tax filers pay less than Rs. 500 per month as income tax. This talk examines reasons underlying weak resource mobilization in the country, outlines common misperceptions about the tax system, and discusses directions for future reforms.

Mazhar Waseem is an Associate Professor of Economics at the University of Manchester. His research primarily focuses on Public Finance issues of emerging economies, especially on the behavior of economic agents to tax and transfer policies with a view to learn how the design of these policies, in particular in weak enforcement environments, can be improved. He holds a Ph.D. in economics from the London School of Economics. He is a Research Associate at the Institute of Fiscal Studies (IFS), Research Affiliate at the Centre of Economic Policy Research (CEPR), and a Research Network Fellow at the CESifo.

Dr. Sher Afghan Asad is an Assistant Professor of Economics at Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) and a Research Director of the Public Finance cluster at Mahbub ul Haq Research Center (MHRC). He has earned his Ph.D. in Economics from Iowa State University in the United States on a Fulbright scholarship. He holds a master’s degree in Economics from LUMS and an undergraduate degree from Forman Christian College. Dr. Asad’s primary area of interest is behavioral economics and public finance. He has been working with tax authorities in Pakistan to improve tax compliance in the country. His work uses experimental, theoretical, and empirical methods to generally study taxation, state effectiveness, discrimination, and behavior change.

Giulia Mascagni is Research Director of the International Centre for Taxation and Development (ICTD) and Research Fellow at the Institute for Development Studies (IDS). She is a development economist, holding aPh.D. in Economics from the University of Sussex and specializing in public finance in low-income countries. For over ten years, she has been engaged in research and policy advisory work, primarily in Ethiopia and Rwanda. Her main area of research is taxation in low-income countries, with a particular focus on the evaluation of tax administration practices and tax policies. She is a Research Advisor to the Rwanda Revenue Authority, member of TADAT’s Technical Advisory Group, Adjunct Professor at Johns Hopkins University SAIS Europe, and Research Associate at the Institute of Fiscal Studies (UK).