An open letter to FBR

Letter July 20, 2021
I humbly request the concerned officials to make tax payment an easy and simple task so that the citizens who want to contribute to the growth of this great country can do so

KARACHI:

You are perhaps the only tax collection organisation in the world whose principal aims appear to be the following: 1) to ensure that Pakistanis are discouraged and, where possible, harassed when it comes to paying their taxes; 2) to ensure that a complicated system of tax payment is designed so that no Pakistani can ever use it and instead has to rely on tax consultants. Before an ordinary citizen can pay say Rs10,000 in tax to the government, he must pay Rs15,000 to a tax consultant. The result — he will do neither; 3) to ensure that the taxpayers and the tax revenue of this great country are kept at such abysmally low levels that the country perpetually remains a beggar that is under the debt of donor agencies.

Sadly, you have performed outstandingly well on the above three counts, thus becoming the biggest hurdle in the progress and well-being of Pakistan. Have you ever asked anyone on the street if he/she ever paid any tax or tried to use your convoluted website for tax payments? Are you aware that there are thousands of well-educated individuals who cannot understand your website? All that was needed was a simple one-page form in both Urdu and English on which citizens can write down the information required. The tax payment should not require any PSID, “chalaans” or queuing in banks. One can easily announce a bank account number (on TV and newspapers) and any citizen using his mobile money transfer systems should be able send the tax amount against his/her CNIC to that bank account.

I humbly request the concerned officials to make tax payment an easy and simple task so that the citizens who want to contribute to the growth of this great country can do so.

Naeem Sadiq

Karachi

Published in The Express Tribune, July 21st, 2021.

Like Opinion & Editorial on Facebook, follow @ETOpEd on Twitter to receive all updates on all our daily pieces.