• Plans to raise GDP-to-tax ratio from 9pc to 20pc
• Vows to abolish all taxes except GST, income tax
• Assures traders of consultation to address concerns

KARACHI: Adviser to the Prime Minister on Finance Shaukat Tarin on Monday hinted at linking right to representation and vote to payment of taxes, declaring that the state has the right to collect taxes.

People should forget tax evasion as the government had all the relevant data of everyone and with the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI), income of every individual could be estimated at 88 per cent accuracy rate, Mr Tarin made it clear while addressing Kamyab Jawan Convention.

“German finance minister during my previous tenure had met me. She said [there should be] no representation without taxation, [meaning thereby] if you don’t pay taxes you have no right to representation, to vote. Simple. And, friend, this is very straight. You may say the government doesn’t provide anything, it collects taxes and doesn’t provide any facilities that’s why we don’t pay taxes. Many people say this. You use roads, you use electricity, you use everything, many people don’t even pay electricity bills. The very fact that law and order, the army that defends your borders, police and others, where will this money come from, friend. I mean to say forget that there would be no tax. Yes, but we will simplify it.

“Only two types of taxes will be collected income tax and consumption tax that you call GST. All other taxes such as withholding tax, turnover tax and all other such taxes will be abolished within three to four years till I am in office,” he said.

The adviser pledged nobody would be harassed as any dispute between a taxpayer and Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) would be evaluated through a third-party audit.

Referring to his last week meeting with traders, Mr Tarin said the procedures were being simplified and assured the traders that they would be consulted but added that they must forget anyone would be spared. “We all will have to pay taxes. We will consult you. Consultation is necessary. I apologize for not being able to consult you earlier. But I joined [office] just a month before the annual budget. We will now sit and discuss. There is no issue. In this caravan, we will be together. If Pakistan has to progress, everyone will have to contribute to it. We will try you don’t face any difficulty. But you also need to appreciate that if we have to progress, then the GDP to tax ratio cannot remain nine per cent. For attaining 6pc to 8pc GDP ratio, we will have to double GDP to tax ratio. We need GDP to tax ratio of 20pc to have 7pc to 8pc GDP rate. We will do it together.”

“We will consider your demands and meet them.”

Earlier, he said there were many countries that did not have material resources but human resource such as Japan. They provided better health facilities, required training and skills to the people in order to turn around their economies. In the 1960s, Pakistan was the fourth largest economy of Asia, he said, adding that the government wanted to bring back the lost economic glory.

Mr Tarin said the government’s flagship project Kamyab Jawan Programme would bring about a revolution at the grassroots level and pave the way for making Pakistan a welfare state, adds APP.

He said the country could not move forward without taking 60 per cent population comprising youth on board. He said the KJP was a complete package to promote youth in entrepreneurship, skill development and other fields. He announced that the Kamyab Kisan Programme would also be launched soon as the government was focusing on promotion of agriculture and small and medium enterprises (SMEs). He said the government was focusing on human resource capital and SMEs, which would be government’s top priority.

He also distributed cheques of business loans and certificates of skills training among young people.

Published in Dawn, November 9th, 2021