Challenges for budget makers
Huzaima Bukhari & Dr. Ikramul Haq It is time for the budget-makers of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf to devise a comprehensive strategy to tap the real tax potential of the country, which is not less than Rs 8 trillion at federal level…
2002: A year of distress & hope
Sweeping legal changes Dr. Ikramul Haq[*] During 2002 Pakistan witnessed an avalanche of legal changes in various laws including the 1973 constitution, through innumerable Presidential Ordinances, aimed at ensuring “continuity” of Musharraf’s rule and policies. These changes — positive or…
Kids—potential adults
Huzaima Bukhari “It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men”—Frederick Douglass, American social reformer, abolitionist, orator, writer and statesman. Nelson Mandela was so right when he opined that there could be no keener revelation of a…
Taxes for prosper Pakistan
Dr. Ikramul Haq “The Laffer Curve, by the way, was not invented by me; it has its origins way back in time. For example, the Muslim philosopher Ibn Khaldun wrote in his fourteenth-century work The Muqaddimah: It should be known…
Fixing the ailing tax system
Huzaima Bukhari & Dr. Ikramul Haq On February 22, 2019, the Government of Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) published two tax directories—‘Parliamentarians Tax Directory’and ‘Tax Directory for the year ending 30 June 2017’ (these have been tabulated from returns filed manually and electronically…
Optimizing tax collection
Huzaima Bukhari & Dr. Ikramul Haq “If we realise that the FBR cannot be fixed, we will create a new FBR. This is because Pakistan’s survival is linked to it. It’s not about our liking or disliking: if our tax…
Equality in inequality!
Huzaima Bukhari “The worst form of inequality is to try to make unequal things equal”—Aristotle With the introduction of biometric verification whereby a person can be uniquely identified by evaluating one or more distinguishing biological traits, including fingerprints, hand and…
Fundamental tax reforms
Dr. Ikramul Haq “If we realise that the FBR cannot be fixed, we will create a new FBR. This is because Pakistan’s survival is linked to it. It’s not about our liking or disliking: if our tax collection authority does…
Unconstitutional taxation
Dr. Ikramul Haq The National Assembly, through Finance Act 2012, amended section 37(5) of the Income Tax Ordinance, 2001 and for the first time levied income tax on capital gain of immovable property. Punjab levied a similar tax in Finance…