APROPOS letters in these columns (May 9), Finance Minister Ishaq Dar insists that the budget he has announced is the best possible under the current economic scenario and IMF conditionalities. The rich traders, big landlords and regime favourites who have always stayed out of the tax net will be paying much less tax than others because they only pay the indirect consumption tax, part of which will be compensated to them if they are traders and themselves producers of consumer items.The huge development expenditure proposed for building motorways and infrastructure at the cost of education and health has no economic justification.

According to him, it is the product of an economic wizard and will take care of everything by further burdening the already taxed and meeting the shortage of tax revenues by imposition of more indirect taxation than direct taxation.

The rich non-direct income tax payers are not to be disturbed by bringing them under the tax net, though their incomes are fully taxable.Why not tax the consumption of and make sure that there is no revenue shortage.

The finance minister loses his temper if he is asked awkward questions by anyone who dares to contradict his arguments justifying his classic budget. In one case, an impertinent journalist was asked to leave his press conference because he was bothering the finance minister with his ‘silly’ questions.

Similarly, the leader of the opposition, who immediately got up at the end of the minister’s budget speech to oppose a meagre 7.5pc increase in the salaries and pensions of federal government employees, was silenced by the speaker and asked to argue his case during the discussions in the budget session.

Z. A.
Islamabad

Published in Dawn, June 14th, 2015

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