Exalted tax target
The government's intention to raise the taxation bar is fraught with consequences. Having seen a downward revision for the ongoing fiscal year owing to inflation and lower economic growth, the new target of Rs14.3 trillion is an uphill task.
In order to attain it, it has to employ some extraordinary tools that may require at least Rs500 billion in additional measures. Will the beleaguered dispensation once again slap the salaried class and squeeze those who are already in the tax net is not difficult to guess!
There are no two arguments that tax mosaic should be broadened but the point is how come that would be possible without introducing stringent reforms and bringing the holy cows into it. It is a given that big businesses, real estate, agrarian farming and land wielding are exempt from their due to the national exchequer, and coupled with it is the elite capture of the economy that swallows in more than $17.4 billion per annum, according to the UN.
An increase of Rs2 trillion over the ongoing year's target, which would be equal to 11% of the projected size of the economy, will require some tightrope walking and a sustained roadmap. With little or no enthusiastic input from the private businesses in reforming the edifice of taxation, it is assured that the IMF will have the last laugh in setting the target and pointing out sectors that should go under the axe.
While road-mapping tax measures, the government should keep in mind that piling on extraordinary burdens on common people would be self-defeating as regards harnessing the economy on modern lines. The FBR is already suffering from a tax shortfall of Rs833 billion in the first 10 months of the ongoing fiscal – something that underscores the inability to withstand tax escalation.
A repeat of the fiasco as the tax gurus go on an arithmetic hype for book-keeping will call the bluff and derail whatever improvement the economy has made. It's time for the government to get real and broaden the tax territory by encompassing all in it.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Express Tribune
2 hours ago
- Express Tribune
Rs2b earmarked for Bajaur rehabilitation
Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Chief Secretary Shahab Ali Shah on Thursday announced that the provincial government has approved Rs2 billion for the rehabilitation of people affected by the ongoing operation in Bajaur. Speaking to the media at the Independence Day flag-hoisting ceremony at the Civil Secretariat, Shahab said that the operation in Bajaur is an intelligence-based, targeted campaign, not a large-scale military offensive, aimed at clearing the area of terrorist elements and restoring peace. He stated that security forces are clearing houses along roads in the affected areas and that displaced residents will be able to return soon. "Wherever government action is taken against terrorists, some local people have to temporarily relocate for their own safety," he said, adding that the government is taking all possible measures to ensure their protection and provide assistance. The Chief Secretary said the provincial cabinet has already sanctioned Rs2 billion to facilitate the immediate rehabilitation of the affectees so that their hardships are eased and normal life can resume quickly. Responding to a question, Shahab said a meeting was held with the local Jirga and administration to discuss ways to restore normalcy. "The terrorists who have come to the merged districts are here for a senseless war. Wherever they operate, trade, education, and all normal activities come to a halt. Their job is to attack, and the job of the police and security forces is to protect," he remarked. He noted that the current situation in the merged districts is largely the result of spillover effects from a neighboring country, but stressed that the provincial government and security agencies are determined, through mutual cooperation, to establish lasting peace.
Express Tribune
4 hours ago
- Express Tribune
Gender apartheid is a byproduct of hegemony
The writer is an academic and researcher. He is also the author of Development, Poverty, and Power in Pakistan, available from Routledge Apartheid is a term used to describe the systemic oppression, segregation and marginalisation of a specific group of people based on race, ethnic or religious identity. The South African apartheid of black South Africans is well known, and there is major contention surrounding whether Israel's brutal and repressive actions against Palestinians should be categorised as apartheid. There is also an increasing push by women's rights activists for the ongoing repression of women by oppressive states to be described as a form of apartheid as well. A couple of years ago, a campaign was launched by Afghan human rights activists calling for the repressive discrimination against women by the resurgent Taliban regime to be codified as a crime against humanity. Similarly, human rights activists have also begun arguing that the term gender apartheid also be applied to describe what is happening to women in Iran. Such women rights campaigners argue that the ideological and institutionalised nature of the systemic subjugation and deprivation of women in countries like Afghanistan and Iran requires international censure because national laws have been specifically crafted to constrain the lives of women and their role in society. The plight of Afghan women under Taliban 2.0 has been worsening. Since retaking Afghanistan in August 2021, the Taliban have issued dozens of edicts curtailing the rights of all Afghan women and girls. While girls are allowed to obtain primary education, they cannot go to secondary school, or to university. Women are also banned from most forms of employment, except providing healthcare to other women, and teaching girls in primary school. The Taliban have also resorted to use of flogging and stoning against women who defy these edicts. The situation in Iran is not as drastic. Iranian women have also faced major restrictions for over four decades. Following widespread protests in 2022 triggered by the death in police custody of the young girl, Mahsa Amini, who was apprehended for not wearing a hijab properly, Iran has further tightened its veiling laws. Fearing further backlash, the surveillance of women and girls has also intensified. A UN Special Rapporteur has thus called the draconian implementation of hijab laws a form of gender apartheid. Conversely, many human rights advocates also recognise that the situation for women in Iran is neither comparable to the plight of women in Afghanistan, nor can it be classified as gender apartheid. If gender apartheid was to be codified as a crime, states would theoretically be obliged to uphold the integrity of international laws, and it may also increase pressure on other countries to grant asylum to women and girls fleeing gender apartheid. However, the notion of gender apartheid itself needs to be reevaluated for it to have greater legitimacy. Currently, this notion fails to consider the deep-rooted factors which have given rise to the evidently suffocating environment for women in certain countries. Gender apartheid is not just a local cultural phenomenon. Instead, it is a system shaped by historical and current geostrategic realities. In many colonised societies, for instance, where matriarchal and more egalitarian norms were common, European colonisers introduced Victorian gender norms to undermine women's traditional roles in trade, farming and politics. Colonisers too used the lower status of women as a justification for domination by presenting themselves as civilising supposedly backward cultures, using the guise of saving 'brown women from brown men' to subjugate entire societies. Global powers have relied on similar narratives more recently as a rationale for waging war. For instance, the US emphasised the brutality of the first Taliban regime against women to justify their overthrow, and two decades of foreign military occupation, which exerted a significant human toll on all Afghans, including women. It would thus be more accurate to recognise gender apartheid as being a product of not only indigenous patriarchies but colonial legacies as well. Contemporary hegemonic actions also continue to manipulate the notion of gender empowerment to further myopic strategic interests, which often also undermine the status of women.
Business Recorder
5 hours ago
- Business Recorder
UN urges pressure on Taliban over girls' education ban
PARIS: The United Nations urged countries Thursday to maintain diplomatic pressure on the Taliban authorities in Afghanistan, saying their ban on girls' education has left millions shut out of classrooms since the group retook power four years ago. 'At a time when some are seeking to normalise relations with the Taliban, I urge the international community to remain more mobilised than ever for the full and unconditional restoration of Afghan women's right to education,' said Audrey Azoulay, chief of the UN's cultural and educational agency UNESCO. Around 2.2 million girls are barred from schooling beyond the primary level, according to UNESCO. Taliban reject criticism over women at UN general assembly 'Afghanistan sadly stands out as the only country in the world where secondary and higher education is strictly prohibited for girls and women,' Azoulay said. 'An entire generation of Afghan women is being sacrificed,' she said, calling on the international community to 'maintain diplomatic pressure'. The Taliban, who promised a softer rule after retaking power in August 2021, have imposed sweeping restrictions on women, banning them from universities, public parks, gyms and beauty salons – measures the UN has labelled 'gender apartheid'. Russia – not named in the statement – is the only country to have recognised the Taliban government since it seized power in 2021 following the withdrawal of foreign troops.
