Dr. Ikramul Haq While speaking at the one-day conference, ‘Doing Taxes Better: Shifting the Paradigm of Tax Policy and Administration’, organised by Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE) on March 11, 2020, Ms. Teresa Daban Sanchez, the Resident Chief of International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Islamabad, said that “Pakistan’s tax collection is 62 percent below...Read More

Huzaima Bukhari “A hero is somebody who is selfless, who is generous in spirit, who just tries to give back as much as possible and help people. A hero to me is someone who saves people and who really deeply cares”—Debie Mazar, an American actress. Home is a place of comfort. It hardly matters how...Read More

Huzaima Bukhari & Dr. Ikramul Haq When the government of General Pervez Musharraf decided to promulgate a new income tax law in 2000, we, amongst many others, opposed it strongly. The main objection was that his regime had no mandate to enact any such law. The rule, “No taxation without representation”, was stressed by us...Read More

Huzaima Bukhari “What you do speaks so loudly that I cannot hear what you say”—Ralph Waldo Emerson There can be no question about the fact that everyone judges everyone although, most of the time, the judged pretend not to care about what others think of them. This is nothing but deception! The fact is that...Read More

Dr. Ikramul Haq The Government of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) has been widely criticized by business houses, public at large and Opposition in National Assembly and Senate for imposing unprecedented high petroleum levy on petroleum oil lubricant [POL] products. All newspapers and electronic media channels on March 2, 2020 highlighted that the PTI Government “facing a...Read More

Huzaima Bukhari & Dr. Ikramul Haq According to a Press release of Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), it received “two million four hundred forty six thousand two hundred and ninety four (2,446,294) Tax Returns for Tax Year 2019 which increased by 45% compared to one million six hundred eighty seven thousand (1,687,000) Tax Returns filed...Read More

Huzaima Bukhari & Dr. Ikramul Haq The failed experience of tax reforms in Pakistan is well documented in a book, The Role of Taxation in Pakistan’s Revival, edited by Jorge Martinez-Vazquez & Musharraf Rasool Cyan, containing nine chapters. These are, in fact, studies conducted for 7-year-long [December 7, 2004 to December 31, 2011] for Pakistan...Read More

Huzaima Bukhari & Dr Ikramul Haq “The last extended date for filing income tax returns ended on Friday and till the closing time, the FBR had received 2.45 million tax returns for tax year 2019, according to FBR officials. However, for tax year 2018 over 2.8 million taxpayers had submitted the returns”—Shahbaz Rana, FBR collects...Read More

Huzaima Bukhari “True religion is real living; living with all one’s soul, with all one’s goodness and righteousness”—Albert Einstein Considering the volatile situation of the world in general and the extraordinary political mismanagement in the Third World in particular along with rampant increase in immorality together with despicable acts of inhumanity being witnessed in the...Read More

Dr. Ikramul Haq The real dilemma of our tax system is that it is highly inequitable. The burden of taxes is less on the rich and more on the middle-class and the poor. In the face of this stark reality, successive governments since 1991 have been resorting to regressive taxation, favouring  the rich and mighty,...Read More