Pakistan: Businessmen are having a good time, people are suffering… having to pay 1550% more tax

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Although the Pakistan government has secured a loan of 7 billion dollars from the IMF, the entire burden of this loan is being borne by middle-class salaried class employees. According to media reports, in the first quarter of the current financial year, the salaried class of Pakistan has paid a tax of 11 thousand crores, which is 1,550% more than the tax paid by the favorite businessmen of the ruling party.

Pakistan has collected tax worth Rs 11 thousand crore in the first quarter of the financial year that started from July, which is 56% or about Rs 4 thousand crore more than the same period last year. Between July and September last year, the Pakistan government collected tax worth Rs 7100 crore from the salaried class.

Pakistan: Tax was increased in June

The Shahbaz Sharif-led government has made an unexpected increase in taxes for the salaried class in June this year. Instead of cutting expenses or bringing non-taxable sectors under the tax net, the government has increased the tax rate for the salaried class by about 40 percent. The government had set a revenue target of $47 billion for the current financial year, due to which the general public, especially the middle class, is bearing the brunt of this.

Paid 1550% more tax than traders

In the budget, the Pakistan government has increased the salaries of government employees by 20 to 25 percent. Out of the 11 thousand crore rupees tax collected from the salaried class, the contribution of government employees is only 2800 crore rupees, the remaining 8300 crore rupees has been collected from private sector employees who do not get any significant increase in salary every year.

Apart from the salaried class, the tax collected from businessmen is much less. Pakistan's Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has collected only Rs 670 crore tax from businessmen. The tax collected from government and private employees is 1550% more than this.

Tax collected much more than FBR estimated.

Instead of giving relief to the people amid the skyrocketing inflation, the Pakistan government increased taxes heavily. In the last budget, the Shahbaz government increased taxes by 39 percent on the salaried class and by 50 percent on the non-salaried class. FBR Chairman Rashid Lambriyal himself has called it unjust. The FBR had estimated that after the tax hike by the government, Rs 8500 crore more tax would be collected from the salaried class compared to last year. Whereas in the first quarter of the current financial year itself, the Shahbaz government has succeeded in collecting Rs 4000 crore more tax from the salaried class.

Pakistan received the first installment of a loan of 7 billion dollars from the IMF last month. For this loan, the IMF had asked the Shahbaz government to increase taxes and close several ministries. The Pakistani government became rich by taking loans from the IMF, but the public has to pay more taxes to repay this loan.