Shaukat Proposes. Who Disposes?
Some people have their destinies written in the wind, ephemeral in character this disappears like chaff in the face of any crisis. And in any case the wind cannot read. This may or may not be so for Shaukat Aziz, Finance Minister-in-waiting for almost every government in the last decade. With full-time cover of a military regime Shaukat finally got his chance to define how he would govern the economic health of the nation and look after the well-being of every individual citizen, if not till Kingdom Come, maybe for the next three years, or at least for the next year. As “Mission Impossible(s)” go, Tom Cruise had it much easier, and then he had distractions of the other kind, the kind that is anathema to the Ulema who hold Pakistan hostage intermittently. Abandoning the “best dressed list” for the standard bureaucratic white shalwar-kameez, black waist coat outfit was out of character but symbolic. Whatever magnificent plans Shaukat may have had for Pakistan when in faraway land, like the Romans do when on Pakistani soil you do exactly as the bureaucrats want you to do. And when you have the fudgers-in-chief of the last 4 regimes surrounding you, one hardly has any choice.
The abolition of the wealth tax was absolutely brilliant, however this was “a Pindi-dictated” initiative not a Shaukat Aziz one. Wealth tax has been the subject of misuse of discretionary powers by the CBR personnel and the abolition of it must have left CBR shell-shocked (maybe of the self-propelled kind). He came up roses in consolidating of Provincial taxes from 30 to 9. If you own a business you would know how different Departments can drive you crazy taking full advantage of levying some unknown tax, harassing and intimidating you with penalties, incarceration, etc till you cough up. However CBR had the last laugh, importers will now be held to blackmail for “under-invoicing” at the discretion of the Principal Appraiser (PA), the threat of confiscation by Customs Collectors (who will never dare disagree with the PA’s observations) will be very real.
Budget and Revenues
Fundamental structural changes in the revenue generating and collection mechanism must be carried out before we can attempt to balance the Federal Budget. If we lack the courage to face upto the worsening realities now, we are going to continue down a slippery debt-ridden slope to ultimate financial apocalypse. At the moment too few are bearing the burden for too many, we have to adopt a philosophy that evens out the sharing of the burden while making the assessment and collection process less prone to corruption.
Federal Budget circa 1990 – III
The coming Federal Budget exposed Pakistan and the Federal Government to the financial ills inherited from the past, not the least of them being a foreign debt burden of US$ 19 billion with almost US$ 6 billion lying unutilized due to inefficient bureaucratic practices. Already plans for a LONG MARCH on Islamabad post-budget are afoot, it being taken for granted that there will be reason enough to make an attempt to bring the streets into the front-line of the Dump-Benazir campaign (or as it is probably known, Anybody But Benazir (ABB). One does not have to be a soothsayer to predict tragic consequences for the country, encouraging the neutrals, or the Great Silent Majority if you please, to take a “plague on both your houses” attitude. The Federal Government needs to elicit support from all sections of the people to find answers to the problems troubling the economy. It behoves the opposition to respond in kind for the sake of the nation. Let’s not play games with economy, in the end the masses that have voted the governments into power need the elected to tend to the more serious matter of ameliorating their atrocious living standards.