While they may unlock more funding from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the Pakistani government’s new tax hikes are unlikely to solve the country’s larger economic crisis, which will continue to impede Islamabad's ability to change policy regardless of who wins the next general election. On Jan. 13, Pakistan’s National Assembly passed the Finance Supplementary Bill and the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) bill to clear the way for the next $1 billion tranche of the country’s $6 billion IMF bailout program. The Finance Supplementary Bill (also known as the “Mini Budget”) proposes several unpopular structural reforms -- including increasing Pakistan’s general sales tax (GST) from 10% to 17% on 42 goods -- in an effort to address the country’s economic crisis and unsustainable taxation policies. The SBP bill, meanwhile, pledges to make Pakistan’s central bank completely autonomous and bans the government from being able to borrow from the bank....
