Harassment of taxpayers must end to encourage them to continue paying taxes
KARACHI: It is encouraging that Prime Minister Imran Khan is considering restructuring the bureaucracy and devising tax reforms to increase the government revenue.
However, to do so it is important to set a right strategic direction to increase the revenue by expanding the tax base without imposing any additional taxes on the salaried class.
The salaried class has always been targeted by many governments due to the ease in tax collection of this method. An average salaried person is paying higher taxes than many of the legislators, though some relief has been introduced in the last budget.
In fact, the salaried class should be given relief in any of the future tax reforms. Harassment of taxpayers must end to encourage them to continue paying taxes. On the other hand, non-taxpayers should be brought into the tax net and a transparent mechanism should be introduced for tax collection in proportion to income.
In return special privileges should be provided to taxpayers by ensuring them opportunities of quality education for their children, healthcare services, travel discounts, support in building houses, loans from banks and buying cars.
Anum Tarique
Published in The Express Tribune, October 1st, 2018.
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