Budgets 2020 amid Covid-19 crisis — II
In the present circumstances, in the forthcoming federal budget, the need for a fair and simple tax system, as elaborate in Towards Flat, Low-rate, Broad and Predictable Taxes [PRIME Institute,…
Budget Speech 2020-21
Mr. Speaker, 1. I start my submissions with the name of Allah Almighty, the most gracious, the most merciful. It is a matter of great honour and pleasure for me…
Finance Act 2020
The existing system imposes high taxes but yields low revenues. Only 2000 companies pay 75% of total taxes. The standard sales tax rate is 17% but effective rate, according to…
Digitalization of the government: why and how?
The acrimonious debate continues to rage in the media on the resignation of Tania Aidrus. Some say our Government is ‘talent repellent’. Some say, the conflict of interest was too…
Scrutiny and beyond
THE much-discussed seven-year-old foreign funding case reached a major milestone about a month ago when the scrutiny committee constituted by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) submitted its report. It…
Reforming judicial system
It is a fact that nothing worthwhile has been done by Legislature—no matter whether under civilian or military rules—to bring fundamental changes in the existing exploitative, anti-people, elitist structures and…
A nationally-owned charter of economy
We have been talking about developing a Charter of Economy (CoE) for a long time now but so far we have miserably failed to walk the talk. Last Wednesday, a…
CPEC — the engine of our growth
Fiftyone memoranda of understanding (MoUs) with an initial 46 billion dollar envisaged investment were signed in April 2015 during Chinese President Xi’s visit to Pakistan when Nawaz Sharif was the…
Sustainable energy
The past year is one that few of us will forget. While the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic have played out unevenly across Asia and the Pacific, the region has…
Recouping tax losses judiciously — III
The tax system that will work smoothly for Pakistan, keeping in view our peculiar socio-economic circumstances and mindset of masses, must be a flat rate with no compliance hassles. All…
