Tax evasion by design

For decades, successive federal governments have failed to meet revenue targets. It is the failure of the paid bureaucracy that has facilitated tax evasion by retailers, wholesalers, real estate investors and large-scale manufacturers, among others. The resultant burden is passed on to the people.

A state that cannot enforce financial and administrative discipline within its paid or elected public office-holders is bound to suffer from within. We must remember the admission by a former federal finance minister that he was prevailed upon by a powerful politician from Punjab to go lenient on retailers, which basically meant facilitating tax evasion. The conflict of interest prevailing behind the powerful real estate mafia has held the country hostage.

As for the annual foreign remittances valued at over $40 billion, this cannot be claimed by the federal government as an achievement. It represents the commitment of overseas Pakistanis to their families living here, and their love and devotion to them. In effect, there is no semblance of austerity visible at all in the working of either federal or provincial governments.

MALIK TARIQ ALI

LAHORE