AT present we cannot spend on health and education even four or five per cent of our GDP because our tax-to-GDP is 10.5pc, while in developed countries it is 20pc.

We cannot ignore our defence as we genuinely need to spend on it for national security.

We need to be proactive in this regard by initiating tax reforms. The Shahid Hussain taskforce report can be a great source of guide in this regard which speaks about several problems and their solutions. We need to have a massive crackdown by the Federal Bureau of Revenue (FBR) all over the country to make sure every person, entity pays tax.

We need to review some exemptions which are only damaging us. We need to adopt international practices which are suggested by management experts like Stephen Robbin about controlling employees and organisations through reward and punishment.

If money is a motivating factor for FBR employees, we should use it in our favour by introducing commissions based on performance.

Raza Abbas

Karachi

Published in Dawn, January 21st, 2019