2019: Review of PTI’s fiscal strategy
Avoiding reforms & imprudent policies Huzaima Bukhari & Dr. Ikramul Haq An unusual decline in revenue collection and steep rise in current expenditures caused a deterioration in all major fiscal indicators during FY19. The overall budget deficit during the year…
Budget 2020-21: FBR’s tax targets
Over reporting, faulty fixation Huzaima Bukhari & Dr. Ikramul Haq In document titled, Federal Budget 2020-21: Budget in Brief, revised version presented by Ministry of Finance (MoF) many days after announcement of federal budget for fiscal year (FY) 2020-21…
Child labour—heinous crime continues!
Huzaima Bukhari “We still have a soft approach on the perpetrators of crimes like worst forms of child labour”—Satyarthi Kailash If laws and rules of a country are meant to be broken, especially by those who are their authors, champions,…
Revenuecracy & provincial budgets
Dr. Ikramul Haq The budgets of Punjab and Sindh for fiscal year 2020-21, announced on June 16 and 17, 2020, respectively, have highlighted a pivotal point that all their projections on revenue side depended on the performance of Federal Board…
Morbid taxation: stifling growth of private sector
Case study of telecom industry Huzaima Bukhari & Dr. Ikramul Haq The Pakistan telecom sector contributes steady inflow of heavy tax collections under major heads like Activation Tax, GST/FED, the PTA fee & charges and others. The PTA has been…
Reconceptualising Jihad
Huzaima Bukhari & Dr. Ikramul Haq Dr. Ayesha Jalal, eminent historian, in Partisans of Allah: Jihad in South Asia has brilliantly traced the root and dimensions of jihad as anticolonial ideology that helped the subjugated masses under British raj to…
Finance Bill 2020 & data privacy
Huzaima Bukhari & Dr. Ikramul Haq The Finance Bill 2020, presented along with federal budget for fiscal year 2020-21 on June 12, 2020, contains certain provisions relating to real-time access to Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) of citizens’ data to…
Finance Bill 2020: muzzling right to justice
Huzaima Bukhari & Dr. Ikramul Haq In the Finance Bill 2020, presented along with federal budget 2020-21, a highly lamentable—rather unconstitutional amendment is proposed—to the effect that for availing right to appeal the aggrieved taxpayer will have to deposit 10…
Finance Bill 2020 & personal data privacy
Huzaima Bukhari & Dr. Ikramul Haq The Finance Bull 2020, presented along with federal budget for fiscal year 2020-21 on June 12, 2020, contains certain provisions relating to giving powers to Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) to have online access…