Remarks made by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif during his meeting with young parliamentarians from the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) on Friday would surely serve as a source of inspiration for people of Pakistan, especially the young lot and salaried class as he expressed optimism to overcome all challenges facing the country and ensure trickle-down effect of government policies and programmes to bring improvement in overall economy. He announced that if current trend of declining inflation continues, government would ease the burden on salaried class.
Criticism of government’s policies for political point scoring apart, the fact remains that incumbent rulers are trying to reform and overhaul different sectors of economy at the cost of their own popularity and political future, which is strongest evidence of their sincerity with cause of the country. This became evident when the PML (N) could not achieve its electoral targets in general elections because of reaction of the masses to a series of measures introduced by then coalition government led by Shehbaz Sharif. Now again, government is pursuing a similar path but it is also mindful of reality that inflation-ridden people deserve substantial relief. After a significant reduction in overall inflation, mainly due to policy and administrative interventions both by federal and Punjab governments, unbearable prices of electricity remain number one concern of the people. It is understood that in presence of IMF conditions and contractual obligations with Independent Power Producers (IPPs), government is not in a position to announce an outright reduction in electricity tariff but targeted actions are being taken to provide relief to different categories of consumers including domestic, industrial and agricultural. Some long-term measures are also being considered/implemented to ensure viability of power tariff as well as the power sector.
Another issue that is a source of trouble for authorities concerned is non-cooperative attitude of the business community, which is opposing levy of even a symbolic tax. A majority of trading community is earning handsomely and this is confirmed by their lifestyle but its members are not ready to pay taxes. It is in this backdrop that the Prime Minister stressed the need for all sectors to pay fair share of taxes. He justly pointed out that it is not right to overburden any one sector with taxes, hoping traders will do more in terms of tax contribution. No right-minded person would support uncalled for demands of trading community, especially when they pass on their tax burden to ordinary people. As against this, tax is deducted at source from salaries of the employees and as a result their take home salaries are badly affected. The government, even at the highest levels, repeatedly assured no additional burden would be added on salaried class but unfortunately this happened once again during the budget for current financial year. It is because of this excessive taxation that corporate sector is shifting their head offices to Gulf countries as their viability is at stakes.
As for inflation, it can come down further only if decision-makers resist the tendency of passing on partial and not full relief to masses in relation to falling prices of oil in the international market. Prices in Pakistan went up due to a combination of factors notably exchange rate fluctuation and rising prices of oil and it is time to pass on legitimate relief to people. Success of ongoing government campaign to expand the tax net is directly linked to progress and prosperity of the country and therefore, there should be no compromise on this account on whatever consideration.
