PTI Chairman Imran Khan. PHOTO: AFP
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) presented another list of demands to the government on Friday, this time asking it to immediately bring down power tariffs and withdraw the general sales tax (GST) increase.
“The government must reduce power tariffs immediately. We demand that the government take back its decision of increasing the GST and the power tariffs,” PTI chairman Imran Khan said in a news conference.
“The government needs to look at more viable ways to deal with the economic crunch, which should include the principle of taxing all incomes,” he added.
Presenting a seven-point agenda, the PTI chairman said that even before the elections his party had put forward ways to resolve the energy crisis and other alternatives of dealing with the prevailing economic issues without adding to the people’s burden.
In his first point, Imran demanded that the government first ‘catch all tax evaders’. Citing the Federal Board of Revenue, he said that it had identified three million people who are evading taxes. “Some Rs300 billion can immediately be added to the national exchequer if each of these tax evaders are made to pay Rs100,000. Additionally, if the 35% of sales tax evaded across the country can be recovered it would add another Rs250 billion to the national exchequer.”
The PTI chief also demanded that it would bring the exempted sectors including property and agriculture into the tax net. He insisted that agriculture tax should be put on the produce rather than on a flat rate on holding.
“This will again widen the tax net and be a progressive rather than regressive tax. The rich in Pakistan have too many legal tax exemptions, while the middle classes and the poor continue to be burdened with the increase in indirect taxes. This must change,” he emphasised.
Imran also underscored the need to put an end to gas and electricity theft. “Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif during his election campaign had declared that Rs300 billion was being lost due to electricity theft and Rs600 billion to tax evasion,” he said. By putting an end to these thefts, he said, the government would be able to gain Rs900 billion as opposed to the Rs150 billion it is currently raising by increasing power tariffs.
He also called for bringing back the money that has been looted from the national exchequer and has been shifted to other countries. “Countries have amended their laws in this regard, why is it then that the government is not using these laws to its advantage?” asked Imran.
The PTI chairman also insisted on ending all ‘money whitening schemes’. He also called for reforming the FBR and making it autonomous.
Imran also said that an immediate austerity policy should be put in place by converting all governor houses into public buildings and their gardens into parks. The practice of declaring private residences as ‘CM House’ must end immediately as it further strains the government.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 26th, 2013.
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