THE National Highway Authority (NHA) is said to have restored the exemption from paying highway toll tax to the parlia-mentarians. The latest tax directory of parliamentarians published this year showed that out of 446 members of parliament in 2019, only 392 filed their tax returns with the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), and the collective tax returns filed by these 392 parliamentarians was Rs576 million against a collective income of Rs11 billion; in simpler words, just 5.2 per cent of the tax they were owed.

A regular salaried person is required topay a maximum tax of 35pc. In 2019, the prime minister paid only 24pc tax against his declared income of Rs44 million. In 2019, the Punjab chief minister paid a measly tax of Rs2,000 — the lowest amongst all the four chief ministers —even though the Punjab Assembly pays the highest salary to its members amongst all the provinces.

By all accounts, the members of our parliament are amongst the richest, and the most privileged Pakistanis, but their return to the national economy is essentially peanuts. Besides, they are openly breaking tax laws in full view of the FBR.

The NHA decision to once again allow this class of elite a toll tax exemption is nothing but a slap in the face of all of us ordinary people, especially the salaried class whose taxes have never been enough to provide respectable public transport or healthcare, but are enough to facilitate the commute of the 1pc minority.

Juwayriyah Qazi
Abbottabad

Published in Dawn, October 16th, 2022