Non-filers, like landowners, can escape having to pay taxes through illegitimate means
KARACHI: In order to increase the country’s tax revenues, the government has imposed a 0.6 per cent tax on non-filers of tax returns on all bank transactions. This appears to be a good step, as it will compel tax evaders, smugglers and other such people to pay to the government what otherwise would have gone into their pockets.
However, it remains to be seen how the government will ensure its success in rural areas where bankers often owe their jobs to feudal lords? Non-filers, like landowners, having great clout in their areas, can escape having to pay taxes through illegitimate means, and by the time the FBR wakes up and starts its investigations, it may be too late. Or, these non-filers might become powerful ministers and be able to hire highly-paid lawyers to ensure that nothing untoward happens to them.
Shakir Lakhani
Published in The Express Tribune, July 6th, 2015.
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