Snaring tax cheats may help Pakistan assets attract billions

LONDON (April 19): Pakistan is mulling a tax amnesty to bring back wealth hidden in foreign assets, a move that may boost stocks, bonds and property.

The government is considering submissions by Pakistan’s business community seeking relief on undeclared offshore holdings, said Syed Masoud Ali Naqvi, a member of the government’s Tax Reformers Implementation and Monitoring Committee. No plan has yet been approved or finalized, he said.

The proposal, if implemented, could help boost revenue and offset the risk of fiscal slippage before next year’s national elections, Hasnain Malik, an analyst with Exotix Partners LLP, a frontier-market investment boutique, wrote in a research note last week. It may also offer respite for Pakistani equities, which have trailed the MSCI Frontier Emerging Markets Index this year after being Asia’s best performers in 2016.

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