The corrupt, inefficient tax machinery can never catch evaders because they are powerful enough to escape the law.
ISLAMABAD: Your report of February 9 titled "Govt plans crackdown against tax evaders, losing Rs796b annually" reminds me of all the tall claims made by successive governments with regard to tax collection.
My long association with the erstwhile Central Board of Revenue proved that the corrupt and inefficient tax machinery can never catch the tax evaders because the latter are powerful enough to escape the clutches of the law. The so-called potential 700,000 taxpayers against whom the proposed crackdown is being launched will mostly turn out to be ordinary taxpayers who are not filing their tax returns but who are subjected to a number of withholding taxes on their presumed income.
A few hundred notorious tax evaders should be targeted in the first phase of the plan, by giving free hand to honest and efficient tax officers. Such officers can be assisted by well-reputed and non-aligned experts who do not seem to have ever been appointed by any commissioner of inland revenue, despite the enabling powers vested under section 222 of the Income Tax Ordinance, 2001.
Jameel Bhutto
Ex-member (tax policy) CBR
Published in The Express Tribune, February 10th, 2011.
