A COUNTRY becomes underdeveloped when its people do not fulfill their own duties to change its fate. Instead, they wait for the change to descend upon them. By passing the buck on to the government to enforce laws, they actually absolve themselves of any responsibility falling on their shoulders as citizens of the state.

With modernisation branching out far and wide, people gravitate towards the superstores and malls for their various shopping needs. Some stores play the underhand game, and do not give computerised receipt bearing the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) monogram, FBR invoice number and deduction of general sales tax (GST) to their customers.

On their part, the customers them- selves do not insist on taking the receipt. Then there are the conven-tional stores in neighbourhoods that give customers hand-written receipts that do not bear even the stamp or the logo of the store.

In both cases, the stores do it knowingly and cunningly to avoid paying taxes as no up-to-date record of business would be available, or perhaps not demanded by tax and revenue officials.

Both the owners and the customers are culpable for not doing their part to make their country viable. Are they entitled by any stretch of imagination to complain about rampant corruption and government negligence?

To have the rights, one must fulfill one’s duties. The least the people can do is not to visit such stores to discourage the malpractice that causes a huge loss to the national exchequer.

While the government must do everything to get hold of the black sheep within the taxation machinery that turn a blind eye to the illegal practices of retailers across the country, we, the customers, can do a lot in this regard.

We should boycott all the stores that are not doing it the right way, and opt for the ones that give computerised receipt. This would sustain their spirit and encourage the wrongdoers to think again. Good qualities must be appreciated in words and actions, lest they should die of suffocation. This is the least we can do to encourage the upright.

M. Nadeem Nadir
Kasur

Published in Dawn, August 2nd, 2023