ANOTHER year and another missed opportunity to set things right. But what is it for those who, by all appearances, consider themselves unaccountable to the public and unfussed by their miseries?

Precisely three weeks ago, Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb had solemnly declared that there were “no sacred cows” in his eyes and that “everyone would have to contribute to the economy”. The pronouncement had come a day before the federal budget for the new fiscal year was unveiled, and it had momentarily ignited some hope that Pakistan, at long last, was serious about setting itself on a path of equitable taxation and sustainable spending under a ‘technocrat’ finance minister.

Between then and this weekend, however, the nation has realised that the finance minister’s ‘assurances’ had been little more than a cruel jest. Speaking at a news conference on Sunday, Mr Aurangzeb could only express his condolences to the salaried class on the higher taxes he had imposed on them.

It is now widely accepted that the coalition government’s ‘crisis budget’ will achieve little more than strangulating those already paying their dues while allowing sacred cows to fatten themselves even further. Actual economic course correction has once again been put off for another time.

The term ‘deepening the tax net’ is being used widely in a bid to rationalise what was clearly another half-hearted attempt at fixing the state’s perennial revenue woes. It is little more than a euphemism, a fig leaf for our decision-makers’ continuing unwillingness or inability to meaningfully expand the tax base.

To add insult to injury, the government has not felt compelled to cut its own expenditures in any meaningful way: those paying will just be forced to pay even more to fund its profligacy. Meanwhile, the trader class, whose activities remain largely undocumented, have been let off once again, presumably because of political expediencies.

Likewise, while a big show has been made of increased taxes on real estate, these will apply mainly to ordinary citizens and not to those who belong to the armed forces or the federal or provincial bureaucracies. Our lawmakers have also managed to have their travel allowances increased from Rs10 per kilometre to Rs25, increased the number of travel vouchers they receive annually from 25 to 30, and also introduced a measure which would see unused air tickets from one year carry over to the next instead of being cancelled.

The audacity of such measures should be illustrative enough to show how the ruling classes continue to privilege themselves while throwing the rest of the nation under the bus. That this is happening while the authorities clamour for an umpteenth IMF bailout explains why this country remains unable to break its shackles and find a more prosperous future for its teeming millions.

Published in Dawn, July 2nd, 2024