Every year a budget is presented and goals set, which are never to be realised. Tax evasion in Pakistan, according to former Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin, is in the range of Rs798 billion annually. The FBR in Pakistan is the biggest facilitator of tax evasion which is evident from the fact that targets set for tax collection are never achieved nor are the criminals responsible for this crime against the state ever been punished.
In any democratic sovereign state, tax evasion is the worst of all crimes that can be committed against a state. This is why high profile tax dodgers when caught in the developed world are never spared and given strict exemplary punishment so that it serves as deterrence for others. There is no rocket science involved in documenting the economy, provided there is political will to do so and some semblance of integrity enforced within the rank and file of those assigned the task to collect taxes. According to FBR some 700,000 tax thieves have been identified and over 4,000 companies involved in obtaining fake refunds identified, yet the FBR for some strange reasons wants to protect their identities.
While millions of poor suffer due to the lack of funds as a consequence of tax revenue targets not being achieved, yet the criminals responsible for this crime within the administration and business community are being protected. No nation can survive or function if its tax collection agency is riddled by massive corruption and less than 40% of targeted tax revenues collected as is the case in Pakistan. Hundreds of thousands of poor die of starvation and many of them commit suicide, yet those responsible for tax evasion, a crime against the state, are being facilitated by none other than the FBR and their political godfathers.
MALIK TARIQ ALI
Lahore