Power of taxation
We elect our representatives to make sure that our voices are heard in decisions of both taxation and distribution.
The power to decide taxation policies should never have belonged to the FBR in the first place. PHOTO: AFP
In the year 1215, almost exactly eight centuries ago, the barons of England forced King John to sign a document that would limit his power to tax the people of the country by requiring approval from their elected representatives, who would meet in a body to be called parliament. Thus was born Westminster.
On the eve of the completion of Pakistan’s first democratic transfer of power, it is worth reminding ourselves why we bother to elect our governments in the first place: the government has the power to collect taxes from us and then use the money thus collected to provide us with services. We elect our representatives to make sure that our voices are heard when it comes to decisions of both taxation and distribution. So, it is somewhat refreshing that the bureaucrats at the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) have decided that they are finally willing to relinquish the power of deciding taxation policy to parliament.
We say this with some degree of irony, because that power should never have belonged to the FBR in the first place. It is one of the most gaping oversights in the transition to democracy: we seem to have forgotten that our military dictators decided to empower civil servants at the expense of elected representatives by giving the FBR the power to arbitrarily change the rates of taxation on virtually whomever they like, whenever they like and with very little parliamentary control over what they do. In essence, the money bill passed by the National Assembly can be completely undone in the corner offices across the street at the FBR headquarters.
At a pre-budget seminar organised by Express News, senior FBR officials generously offered to give this power back to parliament. We urge the incoming members of the National Assembly to take up the bureaucrats on their so-called offer and eliminate this power permanently for the FBR, making taxation policy the exclusive preserve of the elected representatives of the people. The evolution of our democracy will remain incomplete without this measure.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 3rd, 2013.
On the eve of the completion of Pakistan’s first democratic transfer of power, it is worth reminding ourselves why we bother to elect our governments in the first place: the government has the power to collect taxes from us and then use the money thus collected to provide us with services. We elect our representatives to make sure that our voices are heard when it comes to decisions of both taxation and distribution. So, it is somewhat refreshing that the bureaucrats at the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) have decided that they are finally willing to relinquish the power of deciding taxation policy to parliament.
We say this with some degree of irony, because that power should never have belonged to the FBR in the first place. It is one of the most gaping oversights in the transition to democracy: we seem to have forgotten that our military dictators decided to empower civil servants at the expense of elected representatives by giving the FBR the power to arbitrarily change the rates of taxation on virtually whomever they like, whenever they like and with very little parliamentary control over what they do. In essence, the money bill passed by the National Assembly can be completely undone in the corner offices across the street at the FBR headquarters.
At a pre-budget seminar organised by Express News, senior FBR officials generously offered to give this power back to parliament. We urge the incoming members of the National Assembly to take up the bureaucrats on their so-called offer and eliminate this power permanently for the FBR, making taxation policy the exclusive preserve of the elected representatives of the people. The evolution of our democracy will remain incomplete without this measure.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 3rd, 2013.