MINISTER for Finance Dr Abdul Hafeez Sheikh, who has earned respect for presenting out-of-box budgetary proposals for the next financial year, Friday made an impassioned appeal to the rich, legislators and media ‘moguls’ to carry out their national duty by paying taxes as per their income and capacity. Winding up general debate on the new budget, he vowed to expand the tax-net and go after the tax dodgers.
We strongly believe that it is a pertinent call by the Minister and all those who are target audience of the message must listen to him for the sake of the country. Tax-to-GDP ratio in Pakistan is shamefully low but ironically those who do not pay their taxes and are known to be involved in tax evasion are in the forefront of the criticism of the Government vis-à-vis expenditure on social sector like health, education and clean drinking water. These people have no right to give sermons when they themselves are guilty of white collar crimes and have been enjoying incentives, packages, and perks and privileges under different pretexts and garbs. Unfortunately, there are some classes that not only paid no taxes but also took away a significant chunk of the taxpayers’ money ever since creation of Pakistan but resisted all attempts and plans to bring them into tax net. Finance Minister Hafeez Sheikh is a strong proponent of taxing all classes and especially privileged ones but regrettably these classes have powerful representation in assemblies and decision-making circles and have thwarted proposals aimed at taxing their fatty incomes.
It is also strange that majority of industrial and business class even do not deposit the taxes they collect from consumers, which also speaks volumes about inefficiency and inefficacy of our tax-collection mechanism and system. We would urge landlords, the leadership of the FPCCI, Pakistan Business Council and other representative institutions of the private sector to realize the fact that they owe something to the state as well. While it is duty of the state to ensure enabling environment for flourishing of their businesses, it is also their duty to contribute their share to the national kitty so that the country could stand on its own feet, throwing away the yoke of foreign loans that impinge upon our sovereignty. FBR should also devise transparent but effective combination of measures, envisaging both incentives and penalties, to promote tax culture in the country. There is also need to galvanize and revamp the tax collection system, eliminating the rampant corruption which is major hurdle in the way of quantum increase in revenue collection.