Let next elected govt present budget
Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, unconditionally backed by Nawaz Sharif, the party supremo, as well as by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif (a man known to repeatedly defer to his brother’s decisions…
Pre-budget 2020-21 random thoughts — I
Pakistani budgets require little executive input, so argue Ministry of Finance officials, as there is little flexibility in terms of changing allocation priorities while revenue generation remains hostage to the…
Pre-budget 2020-21 random thoughts — II
This is the second of a two part series of articles highlighting some random thoughts on the Covid-19 relief package and its implications on the budget 2020-21. GDP growth is…
Predicting the budget
Predicting anything is a Mug's game, except if you are a celebrity anchor, or a senior analyst, on the electronic media and make sufficiently numerous predictions to ensure that the…
Pre-budget activity in full swing
In Pakistan routine pre-budget activity has begun with the budget scheduled to be presented on 3rd June in the National Assembly. The government ministries/departments have submitted their demand for funding…
Some pre-budget challenges
In order to usher in some kind of order and sanity in the national economy, the government urgently needs to take some long- and some medium- term steps before announcing…
Pre-budget exercise
The budget-formulation exercise in Pakistan rarely generates any interest from political parties in general and the general public in particular. However, major financial and industrial entities as well as cartels…
Pre-budget tax proposals – IV
The bill establishes formal procedures designed to insure due process where the IRS seeks to collect taxes by levy (including by seizure). The due process procedures also apply after notice…
Unconventional pre-budget tax proposals – II
Assignment of tax: Assignment of a tax means transfer of taxation power from a higher level to a lower level government. Taxation power includes the following: right to levy the…
Unconventional pre-budget tax proposals – III
The gigantic and useless government apparatus - doing nothing for public welfare - is also busy wasting whatever taxes are collected. The army of ministers, state ministers, advisers, consultants, high-ranking…
