KARACHI:
The 18th Amendment allows for all four provinces to receive substantial revenues from a divisible pool of various taxes levied by the respective provinces. Similarly, under the same pretext, provinces are allowed to subsidise basic essential food items like wheat and sugar for the purpose of distributing it to their own residents.
In accordance with this practice, the Punjab government has recently subsidised wheat. Reports appearing in the media suggest that the provincial cabinet, under pressure from the federal government, has decided to offer wheat, subsidised by the taxpayers of Punjab, to Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa – a decision that will have an impact of approximately Rs9 billion in the Punjab province. This should be considered as gross mismanagement by the federal government, which in turn has created a rather serious wheat and sugar crisis in Pakistan, further aggravated by hoarding and smuggling. Such misuse of authority highlights blatant flaws in governance and deep-rooted systemic corruption within the administration, coupled with either complicity or incompetence.
Pakistan’s economy has always been agro-based, and the country has been self-sufficient in wheat and other agriculture produce. Therefore, apart from the consistent decline in agriculture production, the only thing that the federal government needs to address is hoarding and black-marketing. Merely importing wheat, after allowing its export is unacceptable and not the solution expected from an elected government. Such acts not only undermine the entire system of control and regulation of essential commodities, but also perpetuate inequality.
Malik Tariq Ali
Lahore
Published in The Express Tribune, October 14th, 2020.
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