Bilawal offers Center tax relief, says provinces can collect more revenue if empowered

Pakistan People’s Party Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari has called on the federal government to devolve greater fiscal responsibility to the provinces, insisting that provincial governments – especially Sindh – can collect more taxes than the center’s allocated targets if given the power to do so.

According to Express News, Bilawal made the comments while inaugurating a newly built technologically advanced OPD block at the National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases (NICVD) in Karachi on Friday.

Speaking at the ceremony, he criticized certain federal ministers who, he said, were trying to reverse the powers and financial autonomy given to the provinces after the 18th amendment, citing the current economic crisis. These challenges, he stressed, ‘belong to everyone’ and must not be used as a pretext to undermine provincial rights.

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He said that if the Center delegates greater responsibilities to the provinces, they are able to fulfill them effectively. “The people of Sindh are patriotic Pakistanis who want to contribute more to the country and have the capacity to do so,” he added.

Referring to the sales tax on services – originally collected by the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) before being devolved under the 18th amendment – ​​Bilawal noted that Sindh, Balochistan and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa continued to surpass previous FBR records after the authority shifted to the provinces. The achievement, he said, showed that provinces ‘can not only collect taxes more effectively than the federal government, but can also help ease the financial burden of the centre’.

Reiterating his offer to the federal government, Bilawal said the PPP-led Sindh government was ready to collect additional taxes on behalf of the Centre. He said that if Sindh was allowed to collect general VAT and given a target, Sindh would achieve it and transfer the full amount to Islamabad.

“If the target is not met, Sindh will even contribute its own share to help reduce the financial challenges of the federal government,” he said, adding that any amount collected beyond the target would be spent on the people of Sindh.

Bilawal said the economic crisis indicated that federal institutions had been struggling to live up to their responsibilities.

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He also praised NICVD for providing free world-class cardiac care, saying the institution had achieved global recognition, noting that critics of the 18th Amendment and provincial financial autonomy often ignored the performance of public institutions such as NICVD, Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Center (JPMC) and National Institute of Health (NIH).

He said PPP, in line with its manifesto, continued to provide modern, free medical facilities to people at their doorsteps. Bilawal added that NICVD had become the world’s largest completely free cardiac care network, calling its success the strongest response to those who saw the 18th Amendment or provincial autonomy as a mistake.