Dr. Ikramul Haq The main cause of our pathetic economic situation is existence of outdated, inefficient, corrupt and repressive institutions that are totally indifferent towards the welfare of the common people and making the state an economically viable entity. The successive governments’ ill-conceived, onerous and anti-people policies have reduced Pakistan to an economically unviable State....Read More

Dr Ikramul Haq The most dreadful aspect of the five-year term (2013-18) of Pakistan Muslims League (Nawaz)—[PMLN] was leaving behind a monstrous public debt touching the level of 71% of the GDP—unprecedented in our economic history. The Opposition parties failed to raise an effective voice in Parliament on the issue of violation of section 3(b)...Read More

Tapping the real potential Huzaima Bukhari & Dr. Ikramul Haq A country’s tax gap is measured by the amount of tax that remains uncollected due to non-compliance with tax laws.‘Pakistan Tax Gaps: Estimates by Tax Calculation and Methodology’(http://aysps.gsu.edu/isp/files/ispwp0811(1).pdf), a joint study of Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), Andrew Young School of Policy Studies at Georgia...Read More

Dr. Ikramul Haq The Government of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) has finally notified its first asset/income/expenditure whitening scheme—Assets Declaration Ordinance, 2019. Promulgated as Presidential Ordinance on May 14, 2019, the scheme gives generous incentives to those who have not been paying their taxes honestly, concealing and/or understating assets/incomes/sales/expenses and cheating the State. This is, no doubt,...Read More

Huzaima Bukhari & Dr. Ikramul Haq Appointment of Syed Muhammad Shabbar Zaidi, a renowned tax expert and seasoned chartered accountant, replacing Jehanzeb Khan, grade 22 officer of Pakistan Administrative Service, belonging to 15th Common Training Programme (CTP), on May 9, 2019, as Chairman Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), was welcomed by business and professional circles....Read More

Fixing the narrow and punctured tax base Huzaima Bukhari & Dr. Ikramul Haq Tax revenue may change through automatic response of the tax yield to changes in national income and/or through the imposition of new taxes, revision of the bases and/or the rates of the existing taxes, tax amnesties, stricter tax compliance and other administrative...Read More

Growth, taxes & equity Huzaima Bukhari & Dr. Ikramul Haq The budget for fiscal year 2019-20, the first of Government of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI), is expected on May 24, 2019. Every year before the announcement of annual federal budget—which has become  an official ritual—plethora of tax proposals are received by the Federal Board of Revenue...Read More

Dr. Ikramul Haq There is a national consensus that existing tax policy needs to be reformulated to provide an equitable, pragmatic, investment-oriented and business-friendly tax system, integrating good tax administration with simplified tax laws that are easily understood and hassle-free from the implementation perspective. Efforts of the government in the past to reform the tax...Read More

Huzaima Bukhari “There’s this sense that whiteness is the default and does not need to be questioned. That you’ve got a race if you’re black, or any kind of Asian, or any kind of Native American, but that you have no race if you are white”—Celeste Ng, an American born Chinese origin fiction writer “Slavery...Read More

Dr. Ikramul Haq Since Ayub’s era our rulers have developed addiction for intakes of foreign loans, especially International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailouts—many call it death-blows. With every loan comes a host of conditions—ostensibly meant for economic revival and reforms by every time leaving us in deeper economic quagmire. Musharraf-Shaukat duo hoodwinked the nation by claiming...Read More