KARACHI: A group of people, who identified themselves as the Salaried Class Alliance Pakistan, on Tuesday criticised what they called the “unjust and unfair” treatment meted out to the salaried employees’ of the country with reference to the federal budget announced a few days back.

Speaking at a press conference here at the Karachi Press Club, the group representatives urged the Supreme Court to take suo motu notice against the injustices.

Obaidullah Sharif of the alliance said the objective of the alliance is to express concern over the enhancement of tax rates in the recently announced budget making it difficult for salaried class to make ends meet.

Speaking on the occasion, Komal Ali said: “The finance minister in his speech said that they’re not going to put burden on salaried class. But if you look it at closely, in the last three years a great deal of burden has been transferred to that class.

The alliance says taxes on salaried class have been increased because govt knows it can’t agitate

For instance, Rs50,000 is the minimum tax threshold for employees instead of Rs100,000. How will a person cope who earns Rs50,000 per month because he with that amount needs to pay his bills and have other expenditures. Then the tax contribution of that class has risen from Rs264 billion to Rs375bn [last year]. What else do you want from them?”

She pointed out that a lot of people are leaving the country, so will the burden be transferred to those who will remain in the country?

“We are professionals, we don’t do white collar jobs. You must catch those sectors which don’t pay taxes. There are certain sectors such agriculture that need to be looked at,” she said and explained that the alliance doesn’t belong to any political group and it comprises the common people.

A Ahmed Khan said the government knows that salaried class is the easy target because it can’t agitate. “The FBR puts its incompetence on us. Companies deduct our taxes at source… The Rs50,000 threshold also has a problem.

Someone working for a company earning Rs50,000 has his tax deducted, but if a paan wala earns the same amount, he faces no deduction… It’s not that we don’t want to pay taxes, but others should also do that.

“You will not find a salaried person in the assemblies. All of them have zamindaar backgrounds. When you have no such person in the assemblies, how can that issue be raised? It’s not their problem. It’s the problem of that man who puts on a tie and gets on the bus or car to reach his office in the morning, returns to home in the evening to pay electricity and gas bills.”

He also requested the Supreme Court to take suo moto action on the matter.

After the speeches, the alliance demanded that the minimum tax threshold for salaried employees should be fixed at Rs100,000 per month instead of Rs50,000, instead of putting the entire burden on salaried class, the tax net be increased and landlords and other classes be taxed.

Published in Dawn, June 26th, 2024