According to the Pakistan Board of Revenue, only 0.57 per cent of Pakistanis paid income tax in 2012. PHOTO:FILE
The British parliament’s International Development Committee contended that “Pakistan’s rich do not pay taxes and exhibit little interest in improving conditions and opportunities for Pakistan’s poor”. According to the Pakistan Board of Revenue, only 0.57 per cent of Pakistanis paid income tax in 2012 — most likely the honest, working middle class. Unfortunately, we have not had sincere governments in the past to show us the fruits of any taxes we have previously paid. If all citizens regularly paid taxes, we could potentially have stronger national security, better conditions in our government schools — including an improvement in the quality of education provided — and safer, more durable roads that connect to even remote parts of the country.
Despite the fact that there is vast poverty in Pakistan, there is wisdom in the British lawmakers’ stance. For 25 years, no person has been held accountable for income tax fraud and less than 30 per cent of our members of parliament pay taxes. Tax should be collected based on a percentage of income, if the income is above poverty level. There is a dire need to develop a system of checks and balances on who is earning what and through what means, which should elucidate the numerous black money practices in our economy and help government analysts understand the situation in order to improve it.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 7th, 2013.
COMMENTS (20)
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Western countries will not stop giving aid to Pakistan as they will just give it to the person in power who will be their local agent to get or do whatever they want based on their foreign policy.
@usman555:
Taking Aid is not akin to begging, if that is what you are implying.
Making a Friends of Pakistan forum and then asking for money, at the same time proliferate dangerous tech to dangerous countries, the very same countries which threaten to now use those same technologies against the countries which gave you aid in the first place, is one step above begging. Thats stabbing someone is the back; the someone who has taken pains to help you.
Lets not forget how Pakistan stabbed those very aid giving countries in the back by supporting the Taliban and giving shelter to Al Qaeda bosses. That strategy has woefully backfired, quite amusingly perhaps, is a very different issue.
Yes, India takes Aid, because there are a lot of people in India which need help. India doesn't ask for it, there are no "Friends of India" forums. India doesn't help dangerous countries. India doesn't support Terrorists who target those very aid giving countries.
You have the gall to compare Pakistan and India. Amusing. Sad even..
@bruteforce,
you don't ask you just take... nice spin. according to OEDC you have taken 160B in aid.
@cautious:
In 1974 it was true, not anymore.. India doesn't ask for any aid now and has a policy of not rejecting whatever it gets.
@meekal a ahmed:
Please offer the courtesy of keeping arguments at a civil level
I made a general comment in a letters to the editor section. It was not intended to be read by economic experts. Just two examples. During the 1997 crisis Malaysia did not opt for the IMF loans. Others did. Please research the result.
Second Pakistan paid for 40 F16 fighter but received much lesser number after a long delay because as we were told the rest went in to commission and/or storage cost. Example of military AID! Information on which permeated to the public domain by chance due to the embargo placed on the country (and subsequently lifted)
The general point is that AID to thirld world countries are counter-productive. Despite all the AID What is the quantum of Pakistan's debt servicing in its annual budget.
@meekal a ahmed: You are making frivolous arguments to distract from his main point and that is that aid is often not a grant but a loan that has to be spent according to various pre-conditions and paid back with interest. Some of those spending conditions are that foreign consultants have to be hired, usually from the lender's country, and also that contracts for infrastructure work have to be given to businesses from the lender's country.
Yes, the interest rate is low and the repayment period lengthy but the pre-conditions mean that a lot of the money goes to waste and in the end that is Pakistan's money not the lender's.
It is sad to read that a miniscule number of Pakistanis pay taxes. Foreign aid from at least Western countries comes from the taxpayers also and why we should subsidize Pakistan when the locals do not want to pay for their own expenses. Pakistan is going ahead and building another Nuclear facility and according to some has more nukes than India. Yet Pakistan does not have money to spend on building their own infrastructure such as dams, hydroelectric and other projects. Pakistan should wean itself from sucking taxpayers of other countries.
Most of this aid money is siphoned off by the elite. The reason this has come up for discussion in UK is that the aid funds were being used to make cash payments to individuals under "Benazir Income Support" "welfare" scheme. In other words, buying votes for Zardari and his cohorts just before an election.
Why should a foreign country finance this ? In fact, all aid to Pakistan should be cut off. We have to learn to live within our means. Period. That is the only way the country can improve. If aid is absolutely required, then the Government of Pakistan should be cut out of the decision making process entirely, as then more money will go towards actual projects rather than fancy cars and junkets for officials.
@aziz:
"at huge cost and interest rate"?
Have you checked up the average cost and repayment period of the aid we get? Since I am not in the spoon-feeding business, please do so before making dumb statements. Or just Google it.
And, incidentally, the reason why we are no more eligible for purely concessional aid (or even concessional IMF financing) is that we are now a lower middle-income country with a per capita income on a PPP basis of US$ 3,600!
@Bruteforce
Agree - same goes for India, Israel and any other country. If you have money to waste on nukes you don't need outside aid.
@Maria
Your a Democracy - common Pakistani voted in the corrupt and inept who cater to the rich - no reason to transfer your mistake onto the shoulders of foreigners. Further - the American's tried to side step the rich/powerful/military to insure that the people got the aid intended for them (Kerry/Lugger bill) and that just upset the Pakistani people who viewed it as meddling.
@author & all pakistanis, I taught there will be atleast 100+ comments against AID to pakistan, but see not crossing 10 too, that too 1~2 asking for aid to be monitored.
Aid, Grant , Loan, Reimbursement and Investment- terms intermingled for sinister purposes.
When Pakistan was a recipient of PL480 it was called AID. Actually it was not. Surplus wheat , rice and some other commodities were shipped to Pakistan (instead of being dumped in the sea). Sold in local currency and the proceeds credited in local currency account of the ambassador of the donor (in this case USA).
There is a tendency to call Reimbursement as AID too. Nato and ISAF using Pakistani facilities are supposed to re-imburse (PAY) for the benefits derived. Some politicians call this as AID too which it is not.
Investments (public) are also called AID. It is not because they come at huge cost and interest rate.
Our bureaucrats since the days of AYUB KHAN have found it very convenient to maintain an eerie silence on the issue because they stood to benefit the most from this confusion. These treasonous lot have perhaps caused more harm to Pakistan by remaining INVISIBLE than any other group (including politicians and generals).
The people of Pakistan should now start focussing on this virus too!
If Pakistan has money to buy nukes and missiles, it definitely is not in need of any aid.
Why should any country give aid to Pakistan. We are a nuclear powerhouse with huge army and all expensive toys. The largest part of the budget goes to the army and the debt servicing of the loans that has been mostly wasted on defense non productive sector while education gets a small fraction of 1%. The UK cannot afford such a huge army and they do not need after the nuclear capability. Their hard earned money should only come in the form of goods with complete oversight and only for education, basic healthcare and other civic needs. Pakistan is a rich country but it does not have money for its poor people. Despite all the corruption the defense expenses are thriving and nobody can talk about their details.
Aw shucks! Too bad someone has caught on to our strategy. Hey world! I will shoot myself in the head and blow everyone up unless you give me some money. Was good while it worked for the last 65 years. Thinking cap on. Let's think of something new, ok?
The flip side to this is to ask why common Pakistani civilians should suffer when it is the insensitive elite who have always benefitted from everything? Aid supports their ability for empowerment. What troubles me is that in the greater scheme of things, Western countries, Britain included is responsible for a great number of Pakistan's problems. If we ignore Britain's outright discrimination against Pakistan in favour of India at the time of partition, the events of recent years are more telling. Western nations used Pakistan as a front line state to fight and defeat the Soviet Union in Afghanistan and ended the Cold War. This was all possible because of the sacrifices of Pakistani citizens who were left to fend for themselves after Pakistan was destabilized by Afghan refugees and countless foreign fighters and weapons initially brought in to fight Soviets. The West was able to win the Cold War for nothing based on Pakistan's efforts, however no help was given to Pakistan to sort out affairs after the Soviets were defeated. Pakistan's current issues stem from that period.Now when the European Union bails out Greece, Ireland, Italy, Portugal, and now Cyprus to the tune of tens of billions of dollars despite tax dodging elites in those countries, Paksitan is being lectured on the same. I wonder why a small fraction of the money they used to bail out insolvent and mismanaged European economies isn't used to support and settle Pakistan's economy. The West owes this and more to Pakistan for its chief role on ending the Cold War and its continued war on terror.
Other countries give aid, but some of it serves their own interests. Most of rich countries, spend far less than 1% of their Gross product. They get contracts for exports and those poor nations get more and more in debt and hardly improve their lot. China has become a very strong economy, no thanks to the aid. Yes, our rich must pay their taxes. But some who do not, invest in rich economies, which helps those rich countries. So they know which side of toast is buttered.
electronic transfers should be made at every level to cut down the middle men and provide more transparency to the end users and accountability to the international organizations..