IT is heartening to note that the chief executive of the country realizes the prevailing system is obsolete, expressing determination to change it for the good of the people. The remarks made by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif while chairing a meeting of the Federal Cabinet on Tuesday offer a ray of hope to the masses, who are frustrated over failure of the system to meet their aspirations and their exploitation at the hands of influential members of the society. He said changes in FBR and reforms in the power sector are atop the list of priorities of the government claiming that the initiatives taken by the government to reform various sectors have started yielding positive results.
The Prime Minister’s pledge for change, made on the eve of Independence Day, is significant as, even after 77 years of partition, the country has not yet realized the dream envisioned by the Quaid for Pakistan. Shehbaz has demonstrated his capability to deliver, as evidenced by the marked improvement and transparency in governance during his tenure as Chief Minister. Therefore, there is no reason to doubt that he will meet the people’s expectations as Prime Minister, provided he is given a free hand to implement his agenda. We have repeatedly been emphasizing in these columns that increased domestic resource mobilization is the need of the hour but the modus operandi to achieve this cherished objective is highly flawed as burden always invariably falls on the common man while influential segments of the society continue to evade taxes. The system is surely obsolete as it has not been able to install electricity and gas meters in known areas of theft where the entire population is using these facilities illegally not for weeks and months but fifteen long years, resisting pressure to pay their bills. It is because of Rs. 500 billion worth of power theft that the electricity tariff has become unsustainable and apart from domestic consumers, industries and businesses are closing down due to higher cost of production and cost of doing business. Similarly, there would be no need to burden the existing tax-payers if genuine and determined efforts are made to bring evaders into the tax net. Therefore, reforms aimed at change should be guided by the principles of transparency and fair play.
