By Shahzada Ahsan Ashraf
When a country faces a grave economic crisis due to years of poor governance and financial indiscipline, it is expected that all will rise to face the challenge.
It is in such times that all sections of society, especially those that have benefited the most from decades of tax relief, should share the burden.
Unfortunately, all the political parties and powerful stakeholders of this country have refused to rope in their special interest lobbies and cartels to share the burden by giving direct taxes on their sources of commercial income in retail/wholesale; real estate profits; illegal tobacco manufacturers; sugar and fertilizer cartels; and big landlords.
Once again, all these political parties, including PMLN, PPP, PTI, JI, JUI, etc., have made it clear that they will continue to protect their special interest lobbies and instead resort to indirect taxation.
It is now for the people to stand up and be counted. The common people, who are the majority, must make it clear that if their welfare is secondary compared to these special interest lobbies of these political parties, then they will not vote for them.
No politician, to whichever party he or she may belong, has raised their voice that the burden must be shared uniformly by all civilians. The masses are willing to share their part of the burden but are not willing to be taken for a ride with mere promises.
We all know that when Miftah Ismail wanted to impose a token fixed tax on retailers/wholesale traders, he was dissuaded by his party leadership stating that they are their loyalty.
This mindset clearly means that the masses are not their constituency and are taken for granted. This is common to all political parties that have been at the helm because they all protected these lobbies.
Even when the MD IMF advised the government to tax the rich and give subsidies only to the poor, this advice was not listened to by these parties and the establishment.
The poor masses and middle class must settle this matter at the next polls and refuse to be exploited in the name of religion, ethnicity, etc.
These days, Islamabad’s favorite mantra is FDI (Foreign Direct Investment). Everybody who is anybody is hooting for FDI as the solution to all our problems. The PM, the army chief, the SIFC, all ministers, and government officials are on the FDI bandwagon.
In the last two years, all multinational companies have either left Pakistan or are in the process of doing so as they cannot repatriate their profits or dividends because Islamabad does not have dollars to give them.
For a bankrupt country like Pakistan, any FDI that does not generate dollars would be a losing deal. After the horrible treatment of the multinationals in the last few years, no new FDI is headed this way.
And, if some do come through, where are we going to get the dollars for them to repatriate their income?
Dollars will come; dollars will be blown away (to repay debts or to pay salaries to the army or to make new DHAs and golf courses).
After two years, the same multinationals will be asking for hundreds of millions of dollars to repatriate. The only FDI that makes sense would be if it is in the export sector.
(The writer is a Former Chairman and Managing Director PIA, Former Federal Minister of industries and production)
