Pakistan is facing a serious financial crisis
LAHORE: This is with reference to the federal budget presented in the National Assembly by Finance Minister Ishaq Dar. The budget is one made by traders for traders and tax evaders, facilitating property tycoons, retailers and businessmen in tax evasion, imposing indirect taxes, which drive inflation, making life miserable for the common man. The statistics presented by the finance minister are hypothetical or fudged, because no census has been conducted for over almost two decades. There are no plans to curb the flight of capital and money laundering and instead, there are efforts to regularise these irregularities. It is unfortunate that the ruling elite of this country indulges in leading extravagant lifestyles on the taxpayers’ account, knowing full well that Pakistan is facing a serious financial crisis. The incompetence and negligence on the part of the Federal Board of Revenue can be gauged from the fact that the number of direct taxpayers has actually decreased.
Our bureaucrats and political officeholders prefer to buy expensive foreign imported limousines instead of locally assembled cars, which, in their opinion, are not safe for them. Yet, they are suitable for citizens who buy these vehicles, which are not equipped with even the minimum safety equipment, nor the latest technology engines — although price tags are more than what one finds even in the US and Gulf countries. Instead of clamping down on tax evaders, they are being facilitated by the regularisation of blatant irregularities committed by them. Although tax evasion is technically a crime in Pakistan, it is prevalent because not a single high-profile tax criminal has ever been punished. Money laundering has become rampant and in rare cases, if somebody like Ayan Ali is caught, the whole system, including prosecuting and investigating agencies, get together to get them off the hook. The misuse of scarce resources can be gauged by the Foreign Office wasting over Rs1 billion in buying expensive foreign imported limousines instead of locally-assembled cars. In the absence of strict audits and regulation, waste and abuse have become norms practiced by state-funded institutions.
Malik Tariq Ali
Published in The Express Tribune, June 14th, 2016.
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