The lady doth protest too much
Issues of governance continue to haunt Pakistan. The PIA planes fail to take off. The railways are no more functional. The steel mills continue to financially bleed the country. Law and order remains beyond control in Karachi. Terrorists can enter the GHQ and Mehran base. The construction plans of the Lahore rapid transport system continue to change with the resulting delay becoming a source of harassment to the commuters in the city. Last month, the PAC was told that billions of rupees of funds of the ministry of defence production were kept in private accounts instead of state accounts. There is endemic corruption in government departments, be they civil or military, federal or provincial.
It surprised few, therefore, when a NAB spokesman claimed that corruption and embezzlement of the public exchequer was resulting in theft of Rs 6 billion to Rs 7 billion on a daily basis. He also revealed that since March this year, 173 projects at federal and provincial levels, with a financial impact of Rs 1.475 trillion, were put to scrutiny by NAB. He has promised that NAB would share details with the media today. The over-reaction to the statement on the part of some of the ministers was thus uncalled for. They should have waited for the details to come.
On the other hand, the cabinet members should have done well to ponder over a report by the Centre for Peace and Development Initiatives and the Centre for Investigative Reporting in Pakistan, which was made public on Wednesday. The well-researched report maintains that only 126 of the country’s 446 members of the National Assembly filed annual income tax returns in 2011. The ratio in the case of the members of the Senate was no better. There are quite a few parliamentarians who are still not registered as taxpayers. Those who didn’t pay taxes include important federal ministers, while out of 20 cabinet ministers who did pay, most made only negligible contributions. The fact that contesting NA elections requires Rs 20-30 million has led the NA to be dubbed as a millionaires’ club. The luxurious lifestyle maintained by most parliamentarians is not at all in consonance with the finding of the report. The report raises questions about the dedication of top lawmakers to enforcing the tax laws they are supposed to oversee. Pakistan’s 10.2 tax-to-GDP ratio is one of the world’s lowest. After the 2010 NFC Award which has raised the share of the provinces in the divisible pool, it would not remain possible to run the federation unless all taxable incomes are brought under the tax net. Unless the parliamentarians pay taxes in full, it would be difficult to persuade the business community, big landlords and civil and military bureaucrats to respect the tax laws. As Chaucer put it, if gold rusts, what can poor iron do?
