Federal Finance Minister Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh has said that with a vibrant civil society and media in Pakistan, the voice of people against corruption has become unstoppable and will get stronger with every passing day.
Speaking at the launch of Federal Tax Ombudsman’s Citizen Report Card Study on Saturday, he said the debate to contain corruption in the country was the right step for achieving the collective goal of a corruption-free society.
“Pakistan is passing through a transitional phase where each institution is trying to assert itself and exercising its power,” he said, adding since this transition was being brought by people, nobody could stop it. “The transition will take time but let me assure you that the country is heading in the right direction and its future is stable.”
Shedding light on anti-corruption efforts of the government, he told the audience that removal of federal excise duty from 392 out of 397 items in the budget for 2011-12 was mainly aimed at closing the doors to corruption.
Shaikh stressed that the government would not bow down to political pressure in cases of tax evasion, adding he lodged an FIR recently, on request of the Federal Board of Revenue chairman, against powerful people in a tax fraud of Rs7.5 billion. Of this amount, he added, Rs3 billion had already been recovered.
The minister won applause from the audience when he declared that he would recover taxes from the targeted 700,000 affluent people, who were being persuaded to come under the tax net. “We cannot run this country on borrowed money, so we need to collect more taxes and widen the tax net,” he said.
He reiterated that FBR would succeed in achieving the tax target of Rs1,588 billion for fiscal year 2011. Replying to a question, the minister said the government wanted self-reliance rather than foreign assistance, but it would take time. Meanwhile, “we will continue our assistance programmes with IMF, ADB and WB.”
Former finance minister Shaukat Tarin said corruption was a very serious problem which had penetrated the roots of society. Corruption not only hampered investment, but it also caused capital flight, he said and stressed the need for bringing more transparency in public and private sector operations.
Federal Tax Ombudsman (FTO) Dr Shoaib Suddle said FBR and FTO had come closer to jointly fight corruption. “I want more help and concerted efforts from civil society and media so that FTO can act more efficiently and address real problems,” he said.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 26th, 2011.
COMMENTS (5)
Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.
For more information, please see our Comments FAQ