Finance Bill 2021
Salaried class and FBR’s brutality Huzaima Bukhari & Dr. Ikramul Haq The proposed taxation under Finance Bill, 2021 of salary income including reimbursed medical expenses or medical allowance for the first time in Subcontinent since the introduction of income tax…
Finance Bill 2021
Salaried class and tax brutality Huzaima Bukhari & Dr. Ikramul Haq The proposed taxation of salary income on gross basis, for the first time in Subcontinent since the introduction of income tax law in 1886, instead of giving any relief…
Budget 2021-22 & erratic taxation
Huzaima Bukhari & Dr. Ikramul Haq The federal budget for fiscal year (FY) 2021-22, third of the coalition Government of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) [hereinafter “the PTI Government”] and first of its fourth Finance Minister, Shaukat Fayaz Ahmed Tarin, announced on…
Budget, tax targets and fiscal deficit
Dr. Ikramul Haq In document titled, Federal Budget 2021-22: Budget in Brief, released with federal budget for fiscal year (FY) 2021-22 on June 11, 2021, the collection target of Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) is fixed at Rs. 5829 billion…
Not a people’s budget
Dr Ikramul Haq Fixing of unachievable tax target for the FBR represents continuation of past legacies that relied on ill-directed, illogical, regressive and unfair taxes. Such skewered approach has a proven record of dampening industrial and business growth. Whereas —…
Finance Bill 2021
Cautious optimism or justified pessimism? Huzaima Bukhari & Dr. Ikramul Haq The Finance Bill 2021 with federal budget will be unveiled today. Will it bring relief for the unemployed, pensioners with no other source of income, low-paid salaried persons and…
Unconstitutional “agricultural income” taxation
Huzaima Bukhari & Dr. Ikramul Haq “I think the landowners’ lobby is powerful in the assembly and they might not allow downward revision of non-taxable income. Instead of filing Agricultural Income Tax returns with the provincial governments, the same should…
Power vis-à-vis character
Huzaima Bukhari “Power does not corrupt men; fools, however, if they get into a position of power, corrupt power”–George Bernard Shaw What is exactly meant by corruption? Transparency International provides a very simple definition: “We define corruption as the abuse…
Budget, jobs, taxes & growth
Huzaima Bukhari & 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…