The Federal Board of Revenue's latest advertisement in the newspapers ("Everyone has to pay tax") is intimidating and in bad taste, to say the least. The change in the tone and tenor of this department, after September 30, baffles me. Earlier, the FBR was pleading (and at times literally begging) the people and tax payers, extending all due courtesies, to deposit their taxes.
But now it is threatening: "Better pay tax than pay the price." I think slogans like "pay tax, pay penalty, face imprisonment" or the "FBR has enough data about your economic expenditures and financial transactions" do not infuse the right degree of confidence among the tax-payers or other "non-filers" or "short-filers."
Would the FBR mind coming out with another advertisement depicting what the actual advantage (or respect), if any, an honest tax-payer in this country gets. Nothing whatsoever. This is certainly not the way to ask people to fulfill their national duty and make Pakistan strong.