The rulers of the country must set examples by paying their due share of taxes
LAHORE: I refer to an article by Bilal Memon titled, “Why are we so tax averse?” published in The Express Tribune (August 6). The writer has tried well to explain the reasons behind our reluctance to pay taxes. Currently, there is resistance from various sections of the business community against the imposition of withholding tax on banking transactions exceeding Rs50,000 for non-filers. We have seen in the past that every time the government has tried to widen the tax net for the purpose of collecting more revenue in order to balance its budget, it has faced controversy and resistance. This is happening yet again, after the imposition of withholding tax on banking transactions. The matter has not yet been resolved despite meetings between traders and the finance minister, and the traders recently observed strikes in major cities of the country in protest.
Why are we so tax averse? I believe there is only one main reason why people avoid paying taxes in Pakistan. This is the fact that the ruling class does not pay its due share of taxes to the exchequer. The majority of politicians who are sitting in Pakistan’s national and provincial assemblies belong to rural constituencies and their agricultural income is often largely exempt from income tax. Now, if you are ruling the country and don’t pay income tax, you do not make a strong case by asking other people to pay more taxes. It is embarrassing for our country to have just around one million income tax filers out of an estimated population of nearly 200 million, thus having the lowest tax-to-GDP ratios in the world. How do we get out of this malaise? We don’t need rocket science to solve this problem. The rulers of the country must set examples by paying their due share of taxes. Once that happens, people will start coming into the tax net and paying their fair share of taxes — thus solving the problem of Pakistanis not paying taxes.
Ejaz Ahmad Magoon
Published in The Express Tribune, August 9th, 2015.
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