Got taxes? Post-budget survival guide
Are you feeling disgusted and enraged post-budget 2024? Because every salaried person in the country rightfully is. We have known for decades that there is a need to broaden the…
Income not consumption taxes: Applying a ‘national income tax’ for a welfare state
‘The fundamental injustice of consumption taxes, relative to income taxes, is that the well-off can postpone them by saving, while the poor pay cash on the nail. “Justice too long…
Revisiting economy’s direction
‘But putting growth at the center of economic policymaking is a mistake. While important, growth in the abstract is not a coherent goal or mission. Before committing to particular targets (be…
Budget, taxes, revival & growth
Fiscal consolidation should be as growth-friendly as possible. In general, tax base-broadening reforms are identified as growth-oriented reforms. To the extent that they reduce distortions to economic decisions on work,…
Why do all roads lead to more taxes?
As a staff-level agreement between IMF (International Monetary Fund) and Pakistan following the ninth review of the IMF programme inches ever closer, the government recently announced the Supplementary Finance Bill,…
Looking for directions: Part – I
In 1777 when a friend bemoaned that Britain’s future was ruined after its army had lost a battle to American colonists in the latter’s War of Independence, the economist and…
A directionless budget
The budget is built on expectations and assumptions (prayers) of global commodities to move out of the super cycle in the next few months. The government built the budgetary framework…
FBR’s Tax Directory 2018 Analysis — I
Reference two-part series (FBR’s statistics: a critical analysis—I, Business Recorder, September 25, 2020 and FBR’s statistics: a critical analysis—II, Business Recorder, September 25, 2020, this article presents statistical analysis of…
FBR’s Tax Directory 2018 Analysis — II
The province- and region-wise collection is in percentage without mentioning from which sum these percentages have been worked out. The percentages are as under: Punjab 35%, Sindh 45%, Balochistan 2%,…
Simplification of taxes for growth — I
The biggest challenge on tax mobilisation front faced by Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) is bridging monstrous tax gap through automation and introduction of tax intelligence system and not levying…
