A senior Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) official revealed to Business Recorder that the idea of granting tax amnesty was discussed at various fora but was rejected. The ostensible reason: amnesty schemes reflect a failure on the part of the FBR to implement the tax regimen by ensuring compliance.
The fact that the FBR official also noted that, response to past amnesty schemes was not that satisfactory, perhaps was the clincher in abandoning this proposal. We oppose this latest FBR proposed initiative as by granting amnesty the government is essentially penalising the honest taxpayer at the cost of the dishonest one.
The honest taxpayer feels cheated and rightly so because the tax evaders, after every decade or so, get an opportunity in the form of amnesty schemes enabling them to get their tax evaded money declared kosher, by paying a nominal rate of tax instead of the full rate applicable to such income and paid by the tax compliant.
However, in view of the rampant evasion of taxes and to help mobilise the desperately needed revenue we would propose that the government do offer a Tax Amnesty that would require payment of tax at the applicable rate to such income but with a token penalty instead of the high rates of penalty under the law. The existing rates of applicable penalties are simply too high, this has led many an inadvertent tax defaulter from coming forward to pay the tax. Hence the government would do well to offer an amnesty for this purpose.
This facility could also be extended initially to those taxpayers who remain outside the tax net because of lack of documentation. Given that the federal government is unlikely to implement the reformed general sales tax with mounting opposition both in parliament and outside, a tax whose major outcome was to enhance documentation, perhaps granting the undocumented sector this facility with some in-built incentives for the future may reduce the large existing parallel black economy operating in this country today.
Tax evasion in Pakistan is an outcome of complicity between the taxpayer and the payee. The taxpayers are at pains to clarify that their complicity is not rooted in any desire to defraud the government but on overt pressure by dishonest tax officials who threaten to levy gross tax far in excess of what is due, until and unless a bribe is extended to them.
On the other hand the tax officials vociferously deny this charge. The truth lies somewhere in the middle. The fact that several federal ministers in the recent past have admitted that the leakages inside the FBR have reached legendary proportions and the proof is in the massive sustained fraud in the Afghan Transit Trade containers offloaded in Karachi but not finding their way to their stipulated destination across the border.
In addition a tax system must have four elements that would generate confidence in the general public to pay taxes honestly, elements that are lacking in our tax system. First a tax system must be equitable, with the rich and influential paying a tax on their income at the same rate as applicable on other sectors irrespective of the source of income.
In Pakistan, income tax is paid by individual employees of the public and private sector, however the rich landlords with an annual income far in excess of the take home pay of such employees are exempt from the payment of tax. Another instance of such inequity is the measly rate of tax paid by the export sector that ranges between 0.75 to one percent of the turnover, particularly when 0.5 percent of turnover is mandatory to be paid by all businesses, even if loss-making, as minimum tax. Thus the effective rate of income tax paid by exporters ranges between 0.25 to 0.5 percent of their turnover.
The words of Adam Smith come to mind, "It is not unreasonable that the rich should contribute to the public expense not only in proportion to their revenue but something more than that proportion". Second and equally importantly, the tax payable must not be left to the discretion of the tax collector. Thus tax must be easy to calculate for the accountant as well as the FBR official with no possible variations.
Third, the government must ensure transparency and fairness in allocating expenditure priorities to be met with the taxes collected. In other words, the taxpayer has to be able to see visible improvements in his lifestyle over a period of time to honestly pay his taxes. In Pakistan during the past three decades while utilities have witnessed a massive increase in tariffs yet supply has remained grossly insufficient to meet demand. From the perspective of the taxpayer this is untenable and accounts for Pakistanis being the largest contributors to charities but niggardly in terms of paying taxes.
Lastly, there is a need to reform the tax system with a view to ensuring that the people of this country have a greater confidence level in not only the collection machinery but also in the efficacy of the expenditure priorities of the government. Both unfortunately remain an issue.