'Bite the hand that feeds'

A cross section of the people who were interacted with on the budget 2013-14 and its impact on the common man, particularly the salaried class was found in instant agreement with the quote: "we set ourselves to bite the hand that feeds us." The PML-N government appears to be "running with the hare and hunting the hound." It has shelved promises made to the people during the election campaigns and is following policies that are being openly criticised by rich and poor, associations, trade bodies and man on the streets and, indeed, all alike.
Majority of the reactions have been unkind and critical of the obstinate policies that are destined to break the "camel's back." After Finance Minister's budget speech, the series of appeals being made everyday shows that there has been less thinking and a lot of copying, and a little bit of tick tack game. The kind of measures announced seem like coming from a list of liked and disliked visitors of Federal Board of Revenue (FBR).
The salaried class which has always been pressed more to let go the other sectors, has again been specifically burdened in the quest of increasing revenue, as none of the incumbent persons at Q block are capable of out of the box thinking.
Instead of increasing number of taxpayers and reducing the size of tax to join the progressive tax regimes of the developed world, the only by default taxpayers have been squeezed further. As if enhancing the tax on new tax slabs was not enough, the allowances and other benefits have also been taxed without even proving the rationale. Under the heading "Perquisite of free or concessional passage" it says 'The perquisite of free or concessional passage provided by transporters including airlines to its employees (including the members of their households and dependants) was exempted from the salary income vide Finance Act 2005. This exemption is now proposed to be withdrawn.
Most of the people, even airline employees at large have not understood what has happened here. There are employees whose annual salary is even below the initial tax slab but the tickets offered to them as any other airline employees from any other country, will move them upwards into the tax slab as the amount of the 'free tickets' they will get will count towards their annual income.
As per the current tax slabs, the tax rate is zero percent for annual salary of up-to Rs 400,000 but if it exceeds Rs 400,000 then up-to 500,000 Rs the tax will be five percent of the amount exceeding Rs 400,000, while for the income range of Rs 500,000 to Rs 800,000 the tax rate will be Rs 5,000 fixed tax plus 7.5 percent of the amount exceeding Rs 500,000.
The confusions are created and shown as the only solution and in this grab the bureaucracy gets two of its target achieved: (1) it shows that politicians know nothing, and (2) the people can be brought to streets by just one stroke of pen. The budget has attracted criticism of all sorts from almost all walks of life, but the most hit is the salaried class though a little relief was announced while wrapping up the budget discussion on Saturday.
Financial experts believe that the FBR machinery put to task to formulate the budget did not bother to evaluate the budget proposals by different industries and organisation and trade bodies, it seems that to increase the revenue in order to achieve the target, FBR baboos just enhanced the existing taxes on existing taxpayers.
The surprised salaried class of PIA was equally dumbfounded with the benefits being taxed, they said. Imagine to travel on a free ticket will become a nightmare as huge tax will be imposed even if the airline employee avails free ticket to perform Umrah. The job in aviation industry has its pros and cons, the 24/7 kind of job in shifts attracts some perks in return which include free travel as per aviation norms.
An airline worker says "It's a pretty nice life when you work for an airline, even if you work for a smaller carrier. That's because more than 100 airlines participate in interline agreements, which allow employees from one airline to travel on a variety of other airlines for only 10 percent to 20 percent of the highest fares, when space is available. In other words, though you fly cheap but you fly stand-by.
Most of the American airlines offer free travel anywhere the airline flies - from the very first day you start working, providing that space is available. Even your immediate family, including your spouse, your dependent children and your parents, can travel for free when space is available.
The flight benefits also vary by position. Flight crew, such as pilots or first officers and flight attendants have the most flexibility in terms of time-off for personal travel, often in-flight crew can get as many as seven days off in a row, as they work irregular hours. It's during these days, that these airline employees take time for personal travel.
Sources in the PIA said that there was still some confusion on travel facility to travel agents, who received interline discount travel. That is what ID stands for "Interline Discount" the number 90 indicates the percentage of full coach fare. The airline is at loss to understand who will pay the tax when an employee is required to travel domestic or abroad on company business.
The airline employees' free flying facility is often compared with that of KESC employee getting free electricity, PTCL employees getting free calls etc, Railway employees getting free train travel and bank employees getting interest-free loan. On the contrary the airline employees are at a disadvantage because their travel is subject to seat availability, means they have to wait till each and every revenue passenger is on board and flight is closed only then they are be allowed to travel, President, Collective Bargaining Agent (CBA), Hidayatullah said.
PIA sources said employees who had been associated with the airline for less than five years were offered a set of four domestic tickets for immediate family, spouse and two children. Set number one is absolutely free except taxes, set number two (domestic) is on five percent payment while one set for international travel is free and one on 15 percent payment.
The facility is enhanced gradually. After 25 years of service two domestic ticket sets for family are free, two on five percent payment and one on 15 percent payment, while one international set is free and one is available on 15 percent payment. Sources further said that Federal Excise Duty (FED), General Sales Tax (GST) etc on ticket value would be separate while additional tax would be applicable when the amount of tickets availed would be absorbed as taxable salary. The impact, though as per usage would be devastating and would reduce the take home portion of PIA employees salary.
Hidayatullah declared the proposal an act of betrayal with the hardworking low cadre employees who were continuously giving their blood and sweat to the airline for its revival while those sitting in their cosy homes were bent upon breaking the back of poor low income employees of the airline.
He said low income employees only availed that facility to visit their hometown once in years as they could not afford frequent visits and mostly once to perform Umrah, but now that facility was being taken away from them as they could not afford to pay tax on the said amount. He said employees of national flag carrier would fight for their right at every forum and would take back their right from labour enemy class serving their vested interests in Islamabad.