What happened
Pakistan’s Central Development Working Party (CDWP) on 11 September 2026 recommended a Rs57.1 billion project to digitalise the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) and sent it to the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC). The Associated Press of Pakistan reported that the Transforming and Digitalising Revenue Administration project, known as TADRA, would be financed by a soft-term Asian Development Bank (ADB) loan.
The Express Tribune put the loan at $200 million. Headlines in some outlets said the loan had been approved, but the working party only recommended the project for ECNEC consideration. The Tribune said loan negotiations were expected soon.
Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal said the project must have measurable outcomes for revenue, the tax-to-GDP ratio and the size of the taxpayer base, APP reported. The recommendation is subject to a thorough review of the project’s business model by the Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE).
What the project promises
The FBR told the forum it would lift the tax-to-GDP ratio to 13.5 per cent by 2029, APP said. The Tribune reported the starting point as 10.3 per cent and said the FBR also aimed to raise active registered taxpayers from 7 million to 12 million.
According to the Tribune, about $81 million (Rs22.5 billion) is earmarked for consultancy services the FBR would procure over five years, and $10 million for project management. The loan would be repaid over 25 years at 1.5 to 2 per cent interest.
Questions raised
The Tribune said the Planning Commission called the project’s targets generic, a Finance Division adviser proposed a detailed feasibility study, and university experts flagged gaps in data security, clarity on artificial-intelligence models and analysis of existing systems. It added that the FBR has missed its tax targets in each of the last two fiscal years, and that foreign loans for tax reform would reach about $4.9 billion with this one.
The FBR’s shortfalls are well documented: it missed its revised 10-month target by Rs683 billion, while Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb has argued that FBR reforms and a cashless drive will widen the tax net. The ADB, for its part, had raised its growth forecast for Pakistan earlier in the year.
What happens next
ECNEC must now consider the project, after which the loan terms would be negotiated with the ADB. The Tribune’s account does not give a date for either step. APP’s report on the same meeting shows the working party also recommended the PakSat-2 satellite system to ECNEC and approved five smaller projects directly.
