Don axe the tax

In October 2009, a group of rich Germans launched a petition calling the government to charge more taxes from the affluent. Claiming they had more money than they needed, they said Germany could raise 100 billion euros if the richest people paid a 5 percent wealth tax for two years.
Fast forward 11 months and change the scene to a flood-ravaged Pakistan. As details of crop, livestock and infrastructure damages dot news headlines, the country also battles an abominably low rate of tax returns from less than 1.5 percent of the population.
The countrys tax-to-GDP ratio, which is amongst the lowest in the world, needs to be increased to 13 percent by 2013 - a target that now seems too ambitious given the complications in the implementation of the reformed GST.
Yet, despite the dismal scenario around, the elite of the country, including prosperous businessmen and the richest and most powerful segments, conveniently evade taxes for solely their own interests - quite a contrast to their German counterparts.
With the extent of the informal economy estimated at around 20 percent, according to one working paper published by the SBP, large swathes of economic activity are left untaxed. Many from the well-to-do class claim that they prefer not to pay taxes as it is more likely to be used to fuel the governments exorbitant expenses, and that theyd rather give the money to charity themselves.
However, a philanthropist stream of thought of this nature also hints at a self-serving bias. Though many of the wealthy tax evaders will probably be generously contributing towards charity and helping the poor in the country, there will also be a significant portion simply pocketing, the money on taxes saved, to bloat their own wealth.
How that leads to a social uplift remains a million dollar question.
Besides, humanitarian efforts from an individual level, or a small communal level at best, tackle the symptoms of poverty and distress rather than the underlying causes.
While rich individual donors and charitable organizations can, for example, provide food, clothing and clean water for the flood affected people, can they initiate the infrastructural rebuilding projects that will also, by the way, generate means of employment for the several who are stranded without any means of a sustained livelihood?
Add to this the maintenance of defence forces and police departments which the citizens rely on at several unwanted occasions, willingly or unwillingly, and the collection of taxes seems quite logical.
Lets also not forget, the maintenance of various government organizations such as the departments for energy, urban development, judiciary and many more that the citizens indirectly or directly depend upon.
The situation becomes particularly galling for the middle class, who, unlike the tax-evading elite "philanthropists", do not have the option of finding refuge in foreign lands. But this by no means implies that evading taxes is the way out as this becomes more a root of a long-term evil than a means of uprooting it.
Before demanding ones basic rights from the government, people need to ensure their own sheets are clean and theyve paid the share expected of them. Without this, any voice of protest against the government seems more a case of a vicious cycle of allegations. Perhaps an out-of-the-box revolutionary thinking is the need of the hour.