YOUR editorial (Nov 24) on the above subject deserves due attention of the government as it is the voice of the silent majority of the salaried class. The government has discriminatorily levied an IDP tax on the salaried class whose income falls in a certain category.

No doubt every Pakistani has deep sympathies with internally-displaced persons and should extend as much help as possible as their suffering cannot be described in words. But, you are right in saying that why similar contributions shouldn't be extracted from the country's industrialists, landlords and top-notch businessmen? Instead, only salaried class is being squeezed due to the fact that they are an easy target as their taxes are deductible at the source by the employer.

A few months back, the Senate was informed that there are a total number of only 2.5 million taxpayers in the country, which has a population of 170 million, out of which major contributors — 1.8 million taxpayers — belong to the salaried class. This proves the ineptness of the government in having failed to devise a sound policy and proper mechanism to broaden the tax net and bring other segments of the society into its fold. It is highly unjustified to target and burden the salaried class only which is already squeezed due to rising inflation and increase in the prices of essential commodities and utilities. The salaried class has a right to ask the government to make public the figures so collected against the IDP tax and the way it is being spent.

We have a classic example of earthquake losses of 2005 when billions of rupees poured in as aid from different sources but whether such a huge amount of money was used for the benefit of IDPs nobody knows.

There is certainly a lack of trust in government functionaries as corruption has tremendously increased in recent years, particularly in institutions under control of the Government of Pakistan.

MUHAMMAD IQBAL SIDDIQUE

Karachi