Do our ministers really deserve a
shameless 146% increase in salary?
Some of them have been found not paying any taxes,
or filing annual returns, or that they don’t have to pay utility bills
I have to interact frequently with our
tax collectors, and since our lawmakers don’t have to pay
taxes, they have no idea of the torture the average businessman has to suffer.
The following dialogue explains how the common man is taxed heavily and, since
lawmakers don’t have to pay taxes, they thought it fit to increase their
salaries recently:
Tax collector: What do you do?
Common man: I run a business.
Tax collector: Well, pay professional tax then! What are
you doing in your business?
Common man: Selling goods.
Common man: From other areas, provinces, countries.
Tax collector: Well then, pay central sales tax,
additional sales tax, custom duty and Octroi, and advance income tax. What are
you getting from selling these goods?
Common man: Profit obviously!
Tax collector: You obviously have to pay income tax and
value addition sales tax then. How do you distribute the profit?
Common man: By way of dividend.
Tax collector: You have to pay your tax on dividend then.
Where are you manufacturing these goods?
Common man: At a factory.
Common man: Yes!
Tax collector: Gosh! You also have to pay municipal, civil
defence and fire tax. You obviously have staff employed as well?
Common man: Yes, of course!
Tax collector: Well, you will need to pay staff’s
professional tax, along with registering with the labour department, Workers
Welfare Fund (WWF), Employees Old-Age Benefits Institution (EOBI), Sindh
Employees Social Security Institution (SESSI), and Staff Welfare Participation
Fund. Do you deal in millions in your business?
Common man: Yes.
Tax collector: Pay turnover tax then!
Common man: No!
Tax collector: Then pay Minimum Alternate Tax (MAT). Are
you withdrawing or transferring over Rs50,000 from the bank?
Common man: Yes. Why?
Tax collector: You have to pay Withholding tax then!
Where do you lodge your foreign customers?
Common man: At a hotel.
Tax collector: You have to pay the hotel service tax
then. Do you travel a lot for business?
Common man: Yes!
Tax collector: Guess what? You have to pay tax on tickets
as well. Have you taken or given any services?
Common man: Yes. Why?
Tax collector: Pay the Sindh Service tax. By the way, how
did you make so much money besides from your business?
Common man: I sold some shares and some property.
Tax collector: You need to pay your Capital Gain Tax
(CGT). Did you purchase any property though?
Common man: Yes.
Common man: Yeah. It was about time.
Tax collector: Well you need to pay stamp duty and
registration fee, CVT and advance tax. What do you do for entertainment
purposes? Where do you normally go?
Common man: I
don’t know, go watch a movie or relax at a resort!
Tax collector: You need to pay entertainment tax for that.
What mode of travel do you use when you travel for your business meetings or
vacations?
Common man: By air of course!
Tax collector: Pay your advance tax then! Do your kids
study and attend private schools?
Common man: Yes.
Tax collector: You also need to pay your advance tax of
education. What mode of technological communication do you normally prefer?
Common man: The usual, either my cell phone
or through the internet.
Tax collector: So you pay
sales tax and
withholding tax for that. You obviously use electricity at home as well, right?
Common man: Well,
yes.
Tax collector: Pay your sales tax. Do you have to pay any
Additional tax?
Common man: Yes.
Tax collector: Well you need to pay Education Cess along
with surcharge on all government taxes. Have you ever been delayed paying any
tax?
Common man: Yes.
Tax collector: Pay your additional tax along with penalty.
Do you want Pakistan to be a better place for living?
Common man: Of course, yes!
Tax collector: Then
pay water
tax, road tax, sewerage tax, along with other infrastructure
related taxes.
Common man: Can I die now?
Tax collector: Wait, we are about to launch the funeral
tax!
A couple of decades from now, people will wonder how we elected
such shameless
men to rule
over us. Practically every city, town and village in the country is infested
with criminals who go around freely robbing and killing citizens, our trains
are looted, it’s not safe to go out after sunset, yet instead of solving our
problems, our leaders proudly increase
their own salaries by a whopping 146%.
The minister in charge of telling such good news to us, Marium Aurangzeb, said with a straight face that it’s
not possible for lawmakers in the country to meet their expenses at their
present salaries of Rs60,996 per month.
Really?
So how do our daily
wage labourers earning
about Rs500 per day manage to survive? What about those who work in the fields,
shops and factories, most of whom being paid even less than the minimum wage of
Rs13,000 per month? Or perhaps the honourable minister thinks they don’t need
three square meals a day and don’t have any children?
Let’s take a look at what our parliamentarians will get now.
Each member of the National Assembly will be given Rs150,000 (US$1,400) plus
perks and allowances worth much more. Ignoring the allowances for the moment,
compare this with what parliamentarians
in Indiaare given – INR52,000 (corresponding to our Rs78,000 or US$760).
So how are they able to get along with almost half of what our elected leaders
are paid?
While we are on the subject, it’s a mystery why we have such a
large number of National Assembly and Senate members. India, with a population
of 1.2 billion, has only 542 Lok Sabha members and 250 senators, while we (with only 16%
of India’s population), have 342 National Assembly members and 100 senators. Why not cut both houses
to size and use the money saved for providing relief to our toiling masses?
Apparently the worthy minister thinks all of us are morons when
she says that most parliamentarians are from the middle class. When you look at the
cars parked
in the National Assembly compound, it doesn’t seem that they are from the
middle class at all. In fact, the mere
sight of those vehicles would
make even a US Congressman turn green with envy.
According to her, private
sector executives earn much more than her colleagues. True, but may I remind
her that (apart from a few technocrats), our assembly members would find it
hard to get a job in the private sector. Most of them would earn less than
Rs20,000 a month, assuming that they found someone to hire them.
The lady minister conveniently ignores the fact that some of
them have been found not
paying any taxes, or filing annual returns, or that they don’t have to pay
utility bills, or medical expenses for themselves and their families, besides
getting hefty allowances to visit Islamabad, plus heavily discounted air
tickets, and other perks. I’m inclined to quote one such person in the assembly
and say,
“Koi sharam hoti hai,
koi haya honi chahyay.”
(You should feel some shame
and embarrassment for what you are doing.)
Also, I am at a loss to understand why they should be paid
anything at all. Most of them are very
rich feudal lords who
don’t need any more money. Their exalted position ensures that they have great
influence in their constituencies, and they can earn a lot from commissions on
civil contracts awarded to their favourites. Right now, they are seriously
thinking of giving a tax
amnesty to property sector players
and crooks, perhaps because they too stand to benefit from such measures.
I’ve noticed that on most days, there are very few people
sitting in the assembly. Nawaz Sharif and Imran Khan are both conspicuous by
their absence, perhaps it’s because they have such flagrant contempt for
democracy. I once heard that only seven per cent of our parliamentarians
regularly attend assembly sessions. Instead of paying them monthly salaries,
why not pay them for only those days on which they attend? This would at least
ensure that they are there when matters of utmost importance are decided.
By wasting the nation’s
taxes so
blatantly, our lawmakers are ensuring that our economy will collapse soon, and
Pakistan will become a failed state.
Shakir Lakhani
Engineer, former visiting lecturer at NED Engineering College,
industrialist, associated with petroleum/chemical industries for many years.
Loves writing, and (in the opinion of most of those who know him), mentally
unbalanced. He tweets @shakirlakhani (twitter.com/shakirlakhani)
http://blogs.tribune.com.pk/story/43352/do-our-ministers-really-deserve-a-shameless-146-increase-in-salary/
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