Our ‘assets beyond means’ strategy is like putting a saniplast on a bad skin rash. It’s a fix for the visible problem, but does absolutely nothing about the deep, systemic infection causing the rash. It is not only the wrong medicine but also a wrong diagnosis.

You’ve got to hand it to the Federal Board of Revenue. Their new 40-member “Lifestyle Monitoring Cell” is a masterstroke of showmanship. The plan is to look for “assets beyond means” by doomscrolling Instagram. It is indeed a headline-grabbing move. We all see those drone-shot weddings, convoy sports utility vehicles and farmhouse parties and wonder how anyone could afford it. Now the state is asking a similar question. And while it may seem they’re getting answers, that’s all it is. A facade. The strategy may be perfect to capture the loudest rich but not necessarily the richest rich.

The truth is, the way wealth is structured in Pakistan is more complicated than Insta showmanship. The state can’t tax its elite because the entire system is designed to systemically decouple assets from their true value and owners from their true assets. If we don’t focus on that, any ‘asset beyond means’ discussion is just pageantry.

The first line of this defence is the decoupling of value. You cannot prove an asset is “beyond someone’s means” if you cannot actually establish what that asset is worth. Let’s look at property. After all, it’s our favourite metric for wealth. You’ve got the irreconcilably low DC or district collector rate, the Federal Bureau of Revenue’s (FBR) own number and then the price you actually pay for the place. These figures are on different planets, and the gap doesn’t seem like an accident but rather a deliberate, foundational feature.

What’s more, the FBR appears to know this and, as a quick fix, jacks up values. This was the case in at least 56 cities last year, where property values have been bumped by up to 80 per cent, according to media sources. While this moves the charts once in a while, it is no long-term solution, ie having a predictable calendar that actually moves with the market.

A real ‘assets beyond means’ strategy has to be structural, much less about chasing the show and more about fixing and linking the records

The most obvious perk of this system is that it saves you on taxes and stamp duties. But it, more insidiously, is also your pre-emptive carte blanche for any ‘assets beyond means’ claim. Think about it: when a Rs100 million house is legally recorded on a white deed for Rs20m, the owner’s problem isn’t justifying the Rs100m. They only have to justify Rs20m. That other Rs80m, paid in cash, just vanishes from the ledger. And just like that, the link between the real asset and the paper asset is severed.

The Financial Monitoring Unit (FMU) noted a similar pattern in its 2022 report. Illicit money is “chopped” into small transfers, moved through housewives’ or students’ accounts, potentially using mobile wallets, before it reappears to purchase a high-value asset.

One way wealth seems to be stored and transferred is through what appear to be untraceable shadow wallets and benami transactions. When the law finally struck the gavel on this (courtesy the Benami Transactions Act, 2017), it proved to be too little too late. And thus the commandment, ‘thou shalt not do benami transactions’, has, much like its Hebrew counterparts, proven to be little more than a shiny catchphrase, much revered but little obeyed.

A real ‘assets beyond means’ strategy has to be structural. It must be less about chasing the show and more about fixing and linking the records.

Instead of ‘tip-offs’ based on reels, running broad, rules-based sweeps and auditing all deeds with large valuation gaps and high-end vehicle registrations in a district is more effective

So, how can we fix this? First, assign values in a true and constant sense. Replace one-off hikes with a predictable, yearly valuation calendar that’s tied to market data. Second, fix the ownership. Mandate the implementation of the Benami Transactions (Prohibition) Act, close the loopholes the Financial Monitoring Unit (FMU) laid down to ensure that the real beneficial owner is by default in all registries (land, vehicle, and utility) and then reconcile those databases. Make anonymity, not wealth, expensive.

Then the third step is to work on a real, verifiable audit. Instead of “tip-offs” based on reels, run broad, rules-based sweeps. Audit all deeds with large valuation gaps. Audit all high-end vehicle registrations in a district. Follow the prize-bond money by comparing encashment data with subsequent land transfers.

The aim shouldn’t just be deterrence, but building a system where assets are priced where they sit and tied to the people who truly own them. Only then can Pakistan tax the wealth it holds rather than the wealth it shows, and curb the problem at its grassroots level.

The writers are financial law students at LUMS

Published in Dawn, The Business and Finance Weekly, November 10th, 2025