Economist advocates tax simplification to boost base

KARACHI: Government is advised to simplify taxation to broaden its net: economist, said economic and financial analyst Ateeq ur Rahman, here Sunday.

He said this is quite sensible that once people see the tangible benefits of their taxes like check to unemployment and poverty, availability of medical and educational facilities, etc, they would voluntarily pay their tax.

There is always a better tax compliance encouraged in the country, said Ateeq ur Rahman, adding predominantly for a result-oriented economy, the government should make all budgetary policies in consultation with the real stakeholders of like businesses, industries, trade community of Pakistan, as a whole.

We should opt for simplifying and broadening of the tax base and not squeezing the existing tax filers. Harassment of the businesses or the industry should be discouraged, he said.

We have noticed that the influential people get tax wavier and poor pays exorbitant taxes; this should be discouraged, he added. Basically tax rates should be brought down for the promotion of industries and SMEs by announcing tax policy reforms. In that case, the turnout of tax payment will be massive

He said that the budget deficits should be controlled by avoiding further borrowing as Pakistan should be saved of sovereign default and needs debt relief from external creditors by quickly restructuring or getting written down its debts.

Further borrowing to compensate budget deficit will have terrible consequences for Pakistani economy.

Further, we cannot even depend on remittances to fill the budget deficit gap as most of the countries where Pakistanis working are facing huge recession and high inflation is taking toll on their saving and consumers spending. We cannot ignore Debt/ Default situation presently on American people consequently which will bring enormous effect on our remittances.

It is said that if the economic situation further worsens there, it is anticipated that nearly 8 million people will be unemployed and payment of social security allowances will be difficult. Then we can imagine a steep fall of remittances from millions of Pakistanis working there. We have to adopt on urgent basis some ways and means by earning through the tremendous growth of our exports, he concluded.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023