| 10 April 2004 | Saturday | 19 Safar 1425 |
Narrow tax base
Needless controversy
Beyond the headlines, how much concern is there internationally about what is happening in Iraq, not least among the Arab countries? Is Iraq a mess that should be left to the Americans to handle because it was they who created it in the first place or should the Americans having failed, other avenues be explored to lessen the death and destruction? The Americans are seeing their young men dying every day, 12 on Tuesday alone in the worst single casualty figure involving US soldiers.
The Iraqis watch as their country, far from recovering from the damage inflicted by the Anglo-US invasion a year ago, plunges deeper into chaos, and ordinary civilians get caught in the conflict. Even mosques are no longer safe from US attacks and its wanton transgressions.
First the Bush administration blamed Saddam remnants for the resistance offered to the American occupation; then they implicated outside infiltrators, as if it was easy for fighters from other countries to cross over into Iraq despite the heavy presence of coalition troops.
Now President Bush blames "thugs and terrorists", although pictures on television screens show boys hardly into their teens among the surging crowds of stone throwers and demonstrators.
Interviews with ordinary Iraqis reflect the fury felt at the occupation of their country. First it was the Sunnis who were said to be the rabble-rousers, then the Shias, and now it appears the sectarian divisions are becoming blurred.
Somebody has already pointed out that the resistance might assume the shape of the Palestinian intifada; the US has already begun to use the tactics employed by Israel. A situation is developing that can easily spill over into the neighbourhood, and is adding to the irrelevance of secular elements.
It is ironic that as in the US crusade against communism, the Americans are again following a course that provokes religious militancy - even as Israel has managed to sideline the Palestine Authority and strengthen Hamas.
The Americans are trapped. They cannot cut and run. Their only solution so far is to use more force. They remain convinced that they have done a great job by removing a dictator - on premises based on dishonesty and illegality - and that a majority of the Iraqis still look at them as liberators.
The June 30 deadline for transfer of power looms, but even if it can somehow be met, to whom will power be transferred and under what auspices? The United Nations is not likely to meet less hostility if it enters Iraq without a broad consensus among the various Iraqi political forces, nor can a multi-national force expect a better welcome if the kidnappings of South Korean and Japanese nationals is any pointer.
A solution has to be worked out beyond traditional lines. A prerequisite is that the international community must feel more concerned with the Iraqi problem and the future of that benighted country.
It must clearly condemn the oppressive tactics of the occupying authority and persuade the US to abandon any political role for itself in Iraq and all pretensions of shaping a future for the country according to the wishes of the Bush administration's zealots.
A group of senior statesmen representing the European Union, Russia, China and the Arab League should then engage representatives of various Iraqi political and religious factions in a dialogue aimed at devising a workable administrative and constitutional framework acceptable to all sections of the Iraqi people. The world cannot just sit back and let the Middle East continue to be wracked by death and destruction.
Narrow tax base
In a recent report on pubic expenditure management, the World Bank has once again recommended that Pakistan should increase revenue mobilization so that poverty-related expenditures can be met.
The report says that determined efforts are necessary to complete institutional and policy reforms within the Central Board of Revenue. In Pakistan, out of a population of over 140 million, barely one per cent, or 1.5 million persons, file income tax returns.
Economists say that there should be at least three million taxpayers in the country and the low number of taxpayers have meant that the government has increasingly been relying on indirect taxes to raise revenues and meet the expenditure. That is of course the wrong route to follow and it is becoming hard to rely on this policy.
For example, money raised through customs duties and tariffs will start to decline in a couple of years as a result of lower tariff rates committed by Pakistan under various international agreements to which it is a party. The shortfall has to be met by income tax.
Widening Pakistan's narrow tax base has been a challenge that most governments have not been able to meet. The two issues that stand in the way are the lack of political will on the part of the government to go after tax evaders and its inability to check corruption in the CBR.
The present government has used the policy of carrot and stick but with little success. Tax rates have been reduced and rationalized, with taxpayers being given a variety of options and incentives.
At the same time, a massive drive was launched a few years ago to unearth tax evasion and theft with exemplary fines and punishment for those found guilty. Neither of the two objectives was realized and any significant increase in revenue collections from direct taxes achieved.
If higher tax collection is not pursued with the priority it deserves and the revenue base remains as at present, there is a danger that economic progress would halt and the government would have to resort to heavy borrowing as was done in the past.
Needless controversy
The advice sought by the National Assembly speaker from a religious scholar regarding the wearing of veil by certain women members of parliament belonging to the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal seems unnecessary.
The issue at hand is to establish the identity of those women MNAs who refuse to put their photographs on the ID cards needed to enter the parliament and other official buildings in the capital.
The Maulana in question has recommended that while women's passports must contain their photographs to enable them to enter other countries, including Saudi Arabia, which insist on this for identification, no such requirement should exist for ID cards needed as proof of identity within the country.
This is simply untenable. One says this because only a very small number of women wear a certain kind of veil that completely hides their faces, and this they do because of their religious convictions. The majority of veil-observing Pakistani women do not follow this practice.
The issue can very well be settled simply by posting women security staff in parliament and other offices. Such a practice already exists at the airports and there is no reason why the same system cannot be adopted for parliament and other government buildings where an identity check is necessary.
The demand to re-examine the issue in a way that provokes a fresh controversy over the decision to require printing of women's photographs on national ID cards is stretching the point too far.
The fact that no such precedence exists in any other Islamic country where the Sharia is a source of law should suffice. The MMA and its women MPs should reconsider their stance on the issue, especially when the photographs of the women concerned are already there on their ID cards and passports.