The fudged figure saga by the FBR has derailed Pakistan economically. The FBR first boasted on June 30 that the target of Rs1.59 trillion was achieved. Later, the department had to eat its words on the intervention of the State Bank that actual revenues were Rs1.55 trillion instead of Rs1.59 trillion.
Our failure to meet the thrice-revised target has raised many eyebrows. Our lender, already keen on bringing more reforms in the power sector, may suspend the aid. The IMF, already proposing very strict conditions for generating revenue and putting the onus on broadening the tax base, may not revive the existing aid programme suspended since May 2010.
The chairman of the FBR, Salman Siddique, should have announced authentic figures and not fudged figures. Had this figure been reported to the IMF, Pakistan would have not been sailing in troubled waters.
The FBR chairman, at the same press conference, said on June 30 that the FBR had identified 700,000 rich people who paid no tax. It is unfortunate that most of our rich people do not pay tax honestly and try their best to evade maximum tax. Barely one per cent of our population pays tax. How revenue collected from one per cent population could be suffice to run the affairs of the country?
A committee was set up to probe how and why the fudged figures were announced on June 30. But this committee has also been stopped from carrying out the probe. We indeed are doing ridiculous things that will make mockery of us in the eyes of international lenders.
MOHAMMAD FIRDOUS
Karachi
