Government urged to pursue policy of equitable taxation system

Experts have urged the government to pursue policy of equitable taxation system, withdraw concessions and exemptions and reprioritise public spending for doing away with the prevalent 'political economy' of inequality. They stated this here on Wednesday during the panel discussion on the second day of the 30th Annual Conference of Pakistan Institute of Development Economists (PIDE).
The session was presided over by the former Deputy Chairman Planning Commission. Former Governor State Bank of Pakistan Hafeez Kardar highlighted flaws in policy pertaining to revenue and expenditure. He added that social and economic inequalities are due to absence of land reforms and policies of concessions and licenses are beneficial to few individual and not the society at large.
He also stressed upon the need for the creation of economic growth model, which caters to large segment of the society. He regretted that a large segment of society cannot participate in the economic activity the way it has shaped during the last decade or so. Shahid Kardar maintained that there is need to introduce inheritance tax.
Karamat Ali, Executive Director of Pakistan Institute of Labour Education and Research (PILER) Karachi stated that there is need to have a democratic federal state with a representative parliament for all segments of society and not a handful of people and dynasties. Karamat also criticised electoral system and stated that rigging in election has been institutionalised. He added that as a part of reform agenda, free and compulsory education is basic right of every citizen guaranteed in Article 25 of the constitution but none of the government has taken serious step to implement it.
Karamat Ali stated that it is strange to note that no labour law is applicable in the rural areas. Despite the fact that the government announces minimum wage each year, rights of the workers are not recognised. Therefore, we need to have a holistic approach to create a democratic state. Ali stated that without land reforms inequality cannot be overcome and also pointed out that all the major political parties including Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) have been resisting the land reform.
Dr Nadeem Ul Haque, who chaired the session on political economy of inequality, said that it is interesting to note that although the issue under discussion is only inequality, but there are various ways to approach and address the problem, which is evident from this lively discussion. He said that a society based on merit and opportunities is needed for equality.
Professor Cheema said that although some degree of inequality is needed for growth but it is not clear what this degree is. He pointed out the role of public for providing public good to the society. He said that political inequality leads to inequality of representation which was evident in Pakistan in the form of dynasty. Dynastic representation in Pakistan is 52% as compared to 29% in India.
Professor Cheema further said that processes that are exacerbating inequalities need to be looked at. The proceedings of the second day of the 30th AGM and Conference of the PSDE started with five parallel technical sessions. The topics of the technical sessions were "Dimensions and Consequences of Socio-economic Inequalities", "Financial Inclusion, Industrial Efficiency and Development", "Poverty: Non-Conventional Approaches", "Poverty, Deprivation and Constraints to Entrepreneurship", and "Distribution and Impacts of Socio-economic Inequality". Nineteen research papers were presented in the technical sessions.