Finance minister Hafeez Shaikh had a PR tour de force the other day at the pre-budget seminar organised by this paper. There is nothing the commentariat hates more than a government official who has done his home work. His predecessor Shaukat Tarin, another speaker at the seminar, almost cued the minister to clear the government’s position on the issue of the agriculture tax. Mr Tarin had argued that an urban-rural divide had been created on the issue of the RGST. The only way to enforce the latter despite opposition by the parties of the bazaar (PMLs, MQM) was to balance it out with the imposition of the agriculture tax. Dr Shaikh’s reply – that the constitution clearly states that the federal government cannot impose a tax on agricultural income, which was a provincial subject – was perhaps the first properly articulated government argument against the imposition of the tax. A far cry from the lily-livered, one-step-forward-two-steps-back spin of other government functionaries on the agricultural tax issue.
He also tried to shatter some myths on the revenue collection front, to which end he had brought along some props. Good fun, but claims about meaningful restructuring of the FBR aren’t going to be believed by anyone till the government shows us the money come budget time next year. There was also some perspective on the IMF loan program, with the finance minister explaining, one, that the representatives of the people were taken into confidence at the time and, two, that the dire fiscal conditions that necessitated the programme were created – clearly – by the previous regime. Former finance minister Dr Salman Shah did well to leave before Mr Shaikh’s speech.
At the end of the day (fiscal year, rather) its going to take more than a spin to set things right. Granted, the government has some political circumstances on its hands but that’s how the cookie crumbles; no one said it was going to be easy. The crowd at the national assembly is not going to be as fun as those at erudite pre-budget seminars. It’s up to Dr Shaikh and his team to set realistic targets and actually deliver.
