Property Tax Experiment in Punjab, Pakistan

Pakistan faces important policy challenges in improving service delivery and growth and development. Low levels of tax revenue act as a serious constraint to economic growth, provision of services and, more generally, to building an effective state. Pakistan does poorly on revenue collection, even when compared to other developing countries. To address this problem, the Excise and Taxation (E&T) Department in Punjab, Pakistan implemented a series of human resource reforms beginning in 2009 designed to appropriately incentivize tax collection and improve overall departmental performance. The Property Tax Experiment in Punjab involves the design and evaluation of these performance pay packages to increase revenue mobilization while retaining/raising customer satisfaction and accuracy of assessment.