ISLAMABAD – Prime Minister Imran Khan, while urging people to pay taxes, has assured the masses that their taxes to the state will be spent for the welfare of their children instead of luxuries of rulers.
The prime minister made these remarks at the launch of the FBR’s first-ever Track and Trace System for the sugar sector here yesterday. He said this system will help enhance the tax collection in the sugar sector.
“People will not hesitate in paying tax if their confidence in government machinery is restored”, the PM remarked.
He said the technology-based Trace and Track system will ensure utmost transparency in the tax collection and restore people’s confidence. PM Imran hoped that the use of technology will help check tax-pilferage and take revenue collection to the tune of Rs8000 billion per annum.
“Our biggest issue is that we have to take loans to run the country. Countries cannot be run without taxes. We have our stability at stake,” he remarked.
Countries cannot be run without taxes. We have our stability at stake: PM
The prime minister also said that with a reasonable tax-to-GDP ratio in the West and highest in Scandinavian countries, Pakistan could not promote the tax culture due to different reasons including the aristocratic lifestyle of the ruling elite in the past, which shattered the confidence of taxpayers in governments.
The practice of not paying due taxes was continuing since the colonial era, when people used to think that their hard-earned money was being taken out by the foreign rulers and they were not being provided basic facilities, he remarked.
Prime Minister Imran Khan said that contrary to the aristocratic lifestyle of the ruling elite in our country, government ministers in the West including UK, which had 50 times more income [revenue] than Pakistan’s were reminded by people, if they ever indulge in high expenditures, that they were using public money.
“Government ministers in the UK, a country of 60 million people and having 50 times more income than Pakistan, when travelling abroad, use economy class if the flight time is less than five hours,” he remarked.
The prime minister further said that as against the practice of Pakistani leaders in the past who used to spend ten times extra public money on foreign trips, the prime minister of the UK preferred to stay in the UK Embassy in the United States to save his country’s tax money.
He said that it was why the country’s debt swelled from Rs. 6000 billion to Rs. 30000 billion in the ten years period [2008-18] of previous governments despite the fact that there was not a single large development project or any dam.
The PM congratulated the FBR for the record revenue collection so far and hoped that the country will realize the tax collection of Rs. 6000 billion.
He, however, added that this revenue collection was not enough for providing basic facilities to 220 million people including in the areas of health and education because the government has to spend Rs. 3000 billion for debt-servicing of the loans taken by the previous governments.
The prime minister described the FBR’s track and trace system as a big step forward and said that the use of technology in the tax collection system will enhance revenue collection and check tax pilferage.
He recalled that with the automation in Shaukat Khanum Cancer Hospital, Lahore, 22 years back, the institution was made paperless, ensuring transparency.
The prime minister hoped that with the automation in FBR and reduction in contact between the taxpayers and collectors, Pakistan will achieve the revenue collection of Rs. 8000 billion per annum.
Describing the role of FBR as critical, he said, the country’s economic survival and security depended on enhanced revenue collection.
The prime minister said that with 65% of the country’s population comprising youth less than the age of 30 years, it was an asset for Pakistan.
He said that the people of Pakistan very generously give money for charity but hesitate to pay taxes due to lack of trust in governments. “When we spend on people, they will trust the government and system,” he remarked.
He said there was a need to make people realize that paying taxes was linked with the prosperity and future of the country, nation and their children.
“I will personally monitor the results of this track and trace system and how much revenue is increased due to this system,” he remarked.
The FBR’s Trace and Track System will ensure electronic monitoring of the production and sale of important sectors including tobacco, fertilizer, sugar and cement sectors.
Under the system, no production bag of sugar will be taken out from the factory and manufacturing plant without a stamp and individual identity mark.