The way forward

Letter June 28, 2011
Those who have it good in this country may control its destiny right now but for how long?

KARACHI: The government can say all it wants that the budget for the forthcoming year is ‘people-friendly’, but the fact of the matter is that 60 per cent of the population lives below the poverty line and the budget does little for them. Unemployment and inflation remain high and we have a substantial budget deficit. The last item leads to printing of money, which in turns causes even more inflation. If we don’t print more money, then we take aid from other countries, and this leads to our national sovereignty being undermined. Since much of the budget is spent on either military spending or on repaying our debt, little is left for education or health.

Is there a way out? One way would be to widen the tax net, which is what the finance minister proposes to do. However, will the Federal Board of Revenue be able to get the rich and the ultra-rich to pay their share of taxes?

Other than this, government expenditure must be massively cut. We are, by all definitions, a poor country. The big cars used by government functionaries must go as should use of the police for security. All government officials and ministers should use regular flights for travelling. The same applies to the bureaucracy. Officers in grades 21 and 22 need to stop living like kings.

As for the military, its generals also need to live a more austere life. The country they are tasked to defend is a poor one and cannot afford beautifully manicured military cantonments and 18-hole golf courses. As it is, we already have 150-200 nuclear warheads so what is the need to spend more money on defence?

Our industrialists are also not to be left behind. They should stop maintaining double books for accounting and pay their fair share of taxes. Over-invoicing, under-invoicing and other tools to evade taxes must either stop or be detected by the tax-collection authorities. As for our media and television anchors, many wear expensive clothes but talk about the plight of the poor — the stark contrast is a bit too jarring.

Those who have it good in this country may control its destiny right now but for how long? The poor are keeping close watch.

Tariq Rashid Quraishi

Published in The Express Tribune, June 29th, 2011.