11
FROM the perspective of a non-filer, I would be fiercely bitter with being repeatedly discriminated against in successive budgets.
After all, it is not that non-filers weren’t paying taxes like every other common Pakistani, barring obviously the rich lobbies which on the strength of economic theories based on fictional assumptions manage to con the policymakers into reducing taxes on their income.
It is pitiful that the government chose not to tax the rich agriculturist, chose to reduce taxes further on corporations, ignored knowledge of billions of dollars sent to Dubai for investment in real estate, buckled under pressure when it came to taxing the real estate dons, and aims all its policy guns at the poor non-filer.
But I get ahead of myself. The more pertinent question is who the non-filer is in the first place.
Who is the non-filer in the first place? It is obviously not the rich corporations which enjoy numerous concessions.
It is obviously not the rich corporations which enjoy numerous concessions; the interest paid on moneys borrowed from banks is completely chargeable against their income, as is the business class travel of their executives, their luxurious offices and vehicles and all other largesse.
It is not the traders and distributors who can pass through whatever tax that they pay on imports, or trade, to non-filers and on top hire fanciful consultants to avoid or evade taxes, and claim refunds, when they do file their tax returns.
And the poor salaried persons aren’t non-filers either since they have no choice but to get their taxes withheld at source by their employers ‘I’, the non-filer, am the people, who because of fewer and fewer middle-class jobs, which is no fault of my mine, was forced to work for myself and become a sole proprietor or a partner in a small business. I belong to the informal sector which according to some estimates is as large as the documented economy and considered by some to be the backbone of economic activity, even during crisis.
Sadly, rather than devising policies to facilitate my migration to the formal economy, the government has chosen to label us as outcasts, the non-filers.
I am also the families of Pakistanis labouring in foreign lands who send home their hard-earned foreign currency as workers’ remittance which is the primary reason that the rupee has not bottomed out. I am also the minimum wage earner who cannot be paid in cash anymore, and who now has to pay income tax at twice the rate every time hard-earned cash is withdrawn from the bank account, which I never wanted to open in the first place.
And that is not all the taxes I pay. Since, roughly 85 per cent of taxes collected by the government are indirect and regressive in nature, I pay taxes every time I travel on public transport, every time I eat or drink, every time I use my telephone, every time I consume, if I am lucky, electricity or gas, every time I buy clothes, in fact anytime I spend money I pay taxes. On a proportionate basis, I perhaps pay more taxes than the ‘one per cent’. I am not sure, but I think I pay taxes for just being a Pakistani and breathing.
The bigger tragedy is that rather than being incentivised, I am already discriminated against. I cannot claim the exorbitant healthcare costs should a family member get sick, I cannot claim cost of my children’s education which has gone through the roof, and I cannot even claim the fare I pay to get to work, which is not even business class.
At this point, I am sure there are those who will retort, ‘then eat cake’, file your tax return, damn it! Well I want to, but don’t forget I am not really literate enough to understand a few hundred pages of legislation which even the tax collectors don’t fully understand. I also cannot afford expensive consultants to file my tax returns, which is not for the fainthearted in the first place.
And why do you think I can afford a state-of-the-art facility to file a return online; a formidable exercise ab initio?
Then there are the horror stories of the treatment meted out to ordinary Pakistanis in the corridors of the tax offices. Can the government guarantee an honest, transparent simple assessment if I do want to file my return?
But with the burden piling up, I wonder whether I can look for solace under ‘Chapter 1: Fundamental Rights’ of the Constitution. Like I said, I am paying my taxes, but am discriminated against simply because of my inability to file a tax return, for no fault of mine.
Or will the tragedy of the commons ensure that I remain a reluctant non-filer?
The writer is a chartered accountant based in Islamabad.
Published in Dawn, July 11th, 2017
