An interesting crossroads
The phrase ‘may you live in interesting times’ is a Chinese curse heaped on an enemy. Frederic Coudert quotes an unknown British diplomat in 1936: “No age has been fraught…
Tax reform, not aid please
The BBC has reported that a group of British MPs have asked the British “government to withhold extra aid to Pakistan unless the country does more to gather taxes from…
Debt and fiscal policy statements 2012-13
Two important documents, namely, Fiscal Policy Statement and Debt Policy Statement for 2012-13, released on 4th February 2013 by the Debt Policy Co-ordination Office of Ministry of Finance, while expressing…
Khoso’s tasks
The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) is facing huge shortage in revenue collection despite resorting to all sorts of negative tactics and highhandedness, destroying the already fragile economy. The FBR…
What is on offer on the economic front?
The manifestoes of the two major parties namely the PML (N) and the PPP have been released amidst much fanfare. One question uppermost in the minds of analysts is: given…
On tax amnesty
Amnesty is a one-time sovereign pardon of punitive legal proceedings offered to a specific class of lawbreakers. Unlike punishment, which is often retributive-cum-reformative, amnesty is reformative in nature, establishing the…
Institutional pillage
`Fiscal Neanderthals`. This is how a friend used to describe the finance and FBR bureaucracy and their parliamentary `handlers` after each bout of resistance to tax reform and the introduction…
Second ‘Shareholder Spring’ unlikely to bloom in Europe
While politicians and public have fulminated against lottery-sized pay awards in Europe's boardrooms, fund firms, which wield the real power, are less concerned by such excesses and unlikely to use…
Taxing secrecy
Tax declarations of holders of public office - in fact all taxpayers - do not enjoy 'confidentiality' and 'secrecy'. Declarations have to be provided by the Federal Board of Revenue…
Tax amnesty schemes as introduced by Tax Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2012
Prelude: The Senate Standing Committee on Finance on January 05, 2013 cleared "Tax Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2012" aimed at bringing 3.1 million potential individuals into the tax net with a…
