Underlining the need for economic empowerment of marginalized women in upcoming budget, experts at a SDPI seminar have demanded tax breaks for divorced, disabled and unmarried women in Pakistan. The speakers were of the view that such tax incentives can reduce financial burden from excluded group of women and they can have a better way of life with more freedom and where they can positively play their role in a more productive way in the society.
The experts were speaking at a seminar on “Tax Break for Economic Freedom: The Case of Divorced Mothers, Divorced Disabled and Never Married Women in Pakistan” organized by Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI) here on Monday.
In her remarks, Dr Rakhshinda Perveen, Executive Director, Sachet highlighted the plight of divorced, disabled and unmarried women particularly over the age of 40, which she said are extremely neglected segment of the society. Advocating for their economic empowerment she expressed that these women have lesser options for a socially respectable life, obtaining their rights within household or getting married and settling peacefully.
She expressed that this group is in dire need of policy intervention and government must revisit the taxation with focus on providing relief to this excluded group of women keeping in mind the stigma, discrimination and social poverty these women have to face in the society. She said that proposed tax break would not only serve as one of the means of freedom from stigma and servitude by restoring and enhancing their self-esteem but also dilute different layers of discrimination in a patriarchal society and culture.
Speaking on the occasion, Professor Dr Huma Ibrahim, Deputy Vice President, African Literature Association, USA endorsed the idea of tax break which she said was very much practical and a step in right direction.
Dr Usman Mustafa, Senior Economist at Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE) said that such tax breaks would cost very little cutback in overall tax collection but can substantially benefit the excluded women group. He said that no charity, zakat or donation can substitute the respectable, dignified, and honorable way of support from government particularly in the form of tax rationalization or reforms.
