Tax concessions add up to Rs 1,000 billion due to state capture by elite: Dr Pasha

The tax concessions alone add up to over Rs1,000 billion, equivalent to almost 25 percent of the actual revenue collection, due to the state capture by the elite that is persistent and pervasive in character.

In addition, there are large-scale distortions and wastage in the utilisation of public resources. Undeniably, one of the ultimate root cause of inequality in Pakistan is state capture by the elite.

These views were expressed by renowned economist and former Finance Minister Dr Hafiz Pasha. He was talking to Business Recorder in the background of a series of tweets by Prime Minister Imran Khan has issued from his official handle on the 24th foundation day of ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI).

In a tweet, PM Imran, who also heads PTI, said to lift poor out of poverty it was required to break the monopoly of the "elite capture of our state and of our nation's resources and redistribute these resources more equitably". "Ours has been a long and arduous struggle - more than any other political party," he added.

Dr Pasha said the feudal class tops among the elite class that is enjoying benefits like extremely low-income taxation, lack of indexation of land revenue, very low rates of abiana and disproportionate allocation of water, subsidy on imported fertiliser, high procurement support price of wheat (in relation to import parity price) and sugarcane, lower tax rate on tractors, effectively low stamp duty on land transactions, tax loophole of agricultural income, low electricity charges on tube wells and no petroleum levy on LDO.

He said the feudal class is followed by the establishment, which enjoys little or no parliamentary scrutiny of the defence budget, tax privileges of senior officers, no GST on defence stores, large business income of foundation/trust, lower or no property tax collected from Cantonment Boards and access to land and residential projects.

Dr Pasha said the trading community is the third elite class that is enjoying low PIT, high evasion and low collection and exemption from GST (that has become a minor move now).

Exporters are the fourth class of elite that enjoys low PIT on export receipts, exemption of domestic sales from GST or very low rates, zero duty on imported cotton and SROs for low duties on imported inputs, he added.

According to him, MNCs are the fifth class of elite that enjoys relatively high tariff walls for import substitution, low CIT on FDI, SROs for cheaper inputs and no law on transfer pricing.

He said power sector is the sixth class of elite that enjoys lifetime exemption from Corporate Income Tax of IPPs and big tariff differential subsidy.

Banks are the seventh class of elite that enjoys tax rate reduction despite large spreads, tax-deductibility for provisioning against bad debt, under capitalisation and access to risk-free government bonds.

The urban property owners and developers are the eighth class of elite that has recently been granted amnesty while already enjoying multiple tax concessions.

Similarly, he said the VIPs, parliamentarians, foreign income of rich residents, capital market/stock exchange, public sector enterprises, and senior bureaucrats are a few classes which enjoy tax concessions, perks and privileges in the country.