TAX collection has become a challenging task for the government. The government machinery assigned to collect various taxes is failing, and unfortunately governments at federal, provincial and local levels have resorted to unorthodox ways to collect tax revenue.

Undoubtedly, the collection of various kinds of taxes via electricity bills actually underlines the fact that the government does not trust its own system, and has more faith in a private entity to success-fully collect taxes.

I strongly believe that the practice works negatively because the inclusion of taxes in utility bills raises the payable amount within the due date, and also broadly contributes to increasing the late payment surcharge.

Electricity tariffs have already gone up manifold over the last few years due to a variety of reasons, and to increase the already high payable amount by including various taxes in the bills seems inadvisable.

It is high time, I believe, for the consumers to stand up for their rights and to stop accepting unfair decisions.

Tanzeel Khanzada
Karachi

Published in Dawn, October 9th, 2024