The politics of ignorance

The assassination of Governor Punjab might buy the government some breathing space in the ongoing political turmoil, but it should also give the opposition parties the time to sit back and realise that blindly bashing the petrol price hike is certainly not the best strategy - no matter how populist and effective it may be to gain political grounds.
It is a matter of fact that petroleum pricing in Pakistan is now done in the most transparent manner possible, which should end all debates of government being responsible for burdening the masses. The walkouts from the parliament and protests on the streets in a demand to take the recent increase in petroleum products prices back, lacks rationality on part of the opposition.
That Pakistan cannot afford more subsidies to its people is a fact open to one and all. Therefore, a demand to go back to the disastrous model of the Musharraf era is uncalled for. The government barely manages to meet its own expenses and has to rely heavily on bank borrowing, which shows it faces enough fiscal constraints, to offer any luxury in the form of petroleum subsidies.
Some factions criticise the high incidence of taxation in the petroleum pricing structure and want the government to let go of its share of taxes from the petroleum products.
True, that the tax incidence is indeed high, but it is still considerably lower when compared to most countries of the world. India, for instance, has a 57 percent tax incidence in petrol prices compared to 27 percent in Pakistan at present.
So how can the government let go of some of its share of taxes on petrol and diesel is the question - the answer lies in broadening and widening the tax base, not the tax rate. The loopholes in the tax collecting authority, which according to some independent estimates has leakages in excess of Rs200 billion annually, need to be plugged. The white elephants that the public sector entities have become - need to be revamped if the masses are to get any relief on petroleum prices.
The politics of opposition should be done in the effort to eradicate corruption, minimise political interference in the hiring and management of public sector entities so that they stop bleeding, which could save the country billions of rupees, and the government then will not be needing the Rs120 billion additional that it collects in the name of the Petroleum Levy.
It is high time that the political forces pressurise the government on issues, which may not yield them more votes and which may not be populist in nature, but will certainly deliver better economic results for the masses.
But for that to happen, major political parties will need to have economic advisory wings so as to have an objective view of matters - something they clearly lack at the moment, or else they wouldn have created a fuss of fuel price hike, or at least would have otherwise provided concrete actionable alternatives.