EARLIER this year, a Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) official, testifying before the Senate Standing Committee on Finance and Revenue, had mentioned that more than Rs2.2 trillion had been lost to tax evasion in the last two years owing to ‘fake’ and ‘flying’ invoices. This is a significant amount, which, if collected, would have enabled the government to provide relief to the people, especially the salaried class which contributes immensely to the national kitty.

When the government could estimate the amount of tax evasion, and knew the specific area and mode of leakage, one wonders why no action was taken. The federal government and the Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC) claim to be trying hard to put the economy on the right track, but are still not pursuing such massive leakages aggressively. Why?

More than the amount of tax lost over the past two years, people should feel concerned about the transparent usage of the taxes actually collected. There is massive corruption leakages and wastage due to bad governance. An audit report had reported irregularities worth over Rs1 trillion in Punjab during the 2024-25 fiscal. Has someone started investigating such cases?

As taxpayers, we are worried about what is going on in the country, and we are desperate to know where our taxes are going. There is an urgent need to take appropriate action across the board, and book all those involved regardless of the socioeconomic class they belong to.

Hasan Tharani
Karachi

Published in Dawn, November 1st, 2025