Pakistanis avoid paying taxes, admits daily

Pakistanis are deeply wedded to tax avoidance, said a daily that added were it to be better managed there will be “no need to pass around the begging bowl as we do”.

An editorial in the News International Thursday said: “It is sometimes opined that Pakistan is not really a poor country just poorly managed, and that were it to be better managed there would be no need to pass around the begging bowl as we do.”

Stating that taxation is an area where successive governments have fallen short, the daily however said “it would be a mistake to lay the entire blame for revenue shortfalls on the government as there is blame also to be laid at the door of the taxpayer – or rather the non-taxpayer”.

“We are a people deeply wedded to tax avoidance,” it admitted.

It cited the example of the discovery by the Federal Board of Revenue of tax avoidance to the tune of Rs.800 million by eight asset management companies.

The authorities said that they failed to make any return at all between July 2007 and June 2011 – which “looks suspiciously like avoidance rather than a simple error of accountancy”.

The editorial said that non-payment of taxes is “cutting off our own noses to spite our face, and the sooner we wake up to the fact that we are in this matter our own worst enemy, the better”.