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| "My message to you all is of hope, courage and confidence" (Muhammad Ali Jinnah) We can all bring back Pakistan’s identity. Mr. Jinnah had always wanted a land, where we all can live happily with peace. He had encouraged us to maintain cordial friendly relations with the world at large. Quaid’s vision of Pakistan was that of a modern, liberal and democratic country -a role model for rest of the Muslim countries. His dream was to have a Pakistan with the glory of tolerance, faith, unity and equality for all its citizens irrespective of their caste, creed, color or gender.
So according to it, we should all look at ourselves before criticizing any other(government and politicians). We should think individually, that what are we all doing for our beloved country. To say that "I love Pakistan" isn't sufficient. We have to show our concern by doing something, in regard to the revival of our country's goodwill and reputation. In this post i will talk about the things that we, as citizens, can do without the involvement of the government, politicians or anyone else. Following are some of the things, we should all consider because these points can help us to bring back Mr. Jinnah's dream Pakistan:
At the end I will simply say that we do not have the right to blame the government or anyone else, until we have done our part as a citizen of this nation. we have to learn some basic principles, to become an example of what it means to be a Proud Pakistani and only then we can hope that the opinion of the world will change about our home country. “Pakistan not only means freedom and independence but the Muslim ideology, which has to be preserved, which has come to us as a precious gift and which, we hope, others will share with us.” (Quaid-e-Azam) By Amina Hameed Section E 10U0564 |
Monday, 28 November 2011
Lets bring back Quaid's Pakistan!
Taxation and Pakistan? Not a chance!
Syed Sameer Rahman
10U0063
We all know just how tightly regulated Pakistan's economy is. The hurricane of increasing taxation and regulations has created a ruined image our country to the point that it is now being referred to as a "Black Economy." Within this kind of an economy reside a colossal number of tax evaders and money launderers who decimate our economy with each passing moment.
Taxes are levied at 3 levels: federal, provincial, and local. At federal level, Central Board of Revenue (CBR) takes care of the revenue-collection. The tax-assessing and tax-collecting officials enjoy unlimited discretionary powers, and by using these powers, they harass and blackmail the tax payers, and extort money from them. In Pakistan, it is said that even an honest tax payer can not pay his taxes honestly; he will be forced to bribe the concerned authorities to pay his due tax. Investment is directly related with taxation, but it is the rate of tax that determines the volume of investment. It’s a fact that besides political instability and deteriorating law and order situation, high tax rates have played an important role in retarding the growth of domestic as well as foreign investment. Despite utmost efforts of various governments, the volume of investment has been static. Not to mention the fact that high taxation has discouraged individuals as they feel they are being deprived of their hard earned money. As it stands, doing any kind of business in Pakistan without the aid of some illegal activity is near impossible.
Why would people want to evade tax? That's because their money is their property, and parting with anything of our own is always a difficult thing to do. Secondly, the taxation system itself is so complex and baffling that a whole legion of accountants is engaged in figuring out just which taxes taxpayers have to pay. Third, and perhaps the most obvious factor is the corruption that has taken root in our system, from the top. Think of corruption as snowfall, that falls on the cliff of hills but eventually melts down below (with the citizens being at the receiving end of the bargain). Too much control, too much law and too much tax tend to make people ‘unethical.’ They start inventing ways to evade what is imposed unethically upon them.
So how do we solve this problem? No nation can function without a governing body, and every government (regardless of political agenda) requires funding which it gains largely from the people, so what then? First of, revise your system so that taxpayers are comfortable with the process of paying tax. Next, improve upon your literacy rate and educate people about the benefits of paying tax (well, this can only be done by a government that isn't as self-absorbed as our current scenario) and then show practical responses by allocating these taxes into appropriate fields such as transport development, infrastructure, health and hygiene etc. There is no long term solution, just the fact that the governing body of the time should be more concerned with the well being of it's nation's people rather than it's political party's fat cats.
10U0063
We all know just how tightly regulated Pakistan's economy is. The hurricane of increasing taxation and regulations has created a ruined image our country to the point that it is now being referred to as a "Black Economy." Within this kind of an economy reside a colossal number of tax evaders and money launderers who decimate our economy with each passing moment.
Taxes are levied at 3 levels: federal, provincial, and local. At federal level, Central Board of Revenue (CBR) takes care of the revenue-collection. The tax-assessing and tax-collecting officials enjoy unlimited discretionary powers, and by using these powers, they harass and blackmail the tax payers, and extort money from them. In Pakistan, it is said that even an honest tax payer can not pay his taxes honestly; he will be forced to bribe the concerned authorities to pay his due tax. Investment is directly related with taxation, but it is the rate of tax that determines the volume of investment. It’s a fact that besides political instability and deteriorating law and order situation, high tax rates have played an important role in retarding the growth of domestic as well as foreign investment. Despite utmost efforts of various governments, the volume of investment has been static. Not to mention the fact that high taxation has discouraged individuals as they feel they are being deprived of their hard earned money. As it stands, doing any kind of business in Pakistan without the aid of some illegal activity is near impossible.
Why would people want to evade tax? That's because their money is their property, and parting with anything of our own is always a difficult thing to do. Secondly, the taxation system itself is so complex and baffling that a whole legion of accountants is engaged in figuring out just which taxes taxpayers have to pay. Third, and perhaps the most obvious factor is the corruption that has taken root in our system, from the top. Think of corruption as snowfall, that falls on the cliff of hills but eventually melts down below (with the citizens being at the receiving end of the bargain). Too much control, too much law and too much tax tend to make people ‘unethical.’ They start inventing ways to evade what is imposed unethically upon them.
So how do we solve this problem? No nation can function without a governing body, and every government (regardless of political agenda) requires funding which it gains largely from the people, so what then? First of, revise your system so that taxpayers are comfortable with the process of paying tax. Next, improve upon your literacy rate and educate people about the benefits of paying tax (well, this can only be done by a government that isn't as self-absorbed as our current scenario) and then show practical responses by allocating these taxes into appropriate fields such as transport development, infrastructure, health and hygiene etc. There is no long term solution, just the fact that the governing body of the time should be more concerned with the well being of it's nation's people rather than it's political party's fat cats.
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