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| Carbon tax to fund rulers’ privileges, junkets |
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Thursday, July 09, 2009
Comment
By Farrukh Saleem
The carbon surcharge is a mere symptom. The real disease is misgovernance. The carbon surcharge is a misnomer. The real government intent is to extort Rs 122 billion — and a bulk of that from low-income Pakistanis. When a state is unable to balance its income and expense streams, the state’s ministers resort to regressive taxation. When a state’s revenue collection apparatus becomes so weak that it is unable to collect direct taxes, the state’s ministers then resort to regressive taxation; a tax that takes a “larger percentage of the income of low-income people than of high-income people.” A regressive tax, by definition, imposes a much greater burden on the poor than it does on the rich.
Budget 2009-10 has allocated Rs 3 million a day, every single day of the year, for prime ministerial foreign tours. That’s a wholesome Rs 100 million a month or Rs 1.2 billion a year. This year, as in the years gone by, the presidential allocation under the head of budget for “staff, household and allowances” stands at a colossal Rs 390 million, Rs 32 million a month or Rs 1 million a day, every single day of the year.
Budget 2009-10 has allocated Rs 600,000 a day, every single day of the year, for presidential foreign junkets. That’s a wholesome Rs 19 million a month or Rs 230 million a year. This year, every member of our National Assembly has been allocated Rs 2 million for “travelling conveyance and air tickets.” At 342, mostly rich, that is an allocation of Rs 645 million a year or Rs 50 million a month, every month of the year.
This year, our legislators were allocated Rs 10 million each in the name of ‘constituency development’ — a political bribe or legitimised corruption. This year, the bribe was doubled — that’s some Rs7 billion a year, nearly Rs 600 million a month or Rs 20 million a day, every single day of the year.
Consider this: Islamabad is 350 square miles and has a million inhabitants. Islamabad now has 7-dozen ministers or VIPs with the rank of a minister. Every 10,000 residents of Islamabad have a minister and there is a minister for every 4 square miles of Islamabad. Each minister costs the exchequer Rs 3 million to Rs 4 million per month, Rs50 million a year or Rs 100,000 a day, every single day of the year (Peshawar, Lahore, Karachi and Quetta all have their own armies of ministers). The US has 15 cabinet posts. Switzerland 7 while the UK 21. The president of the United States rides in a made in the US Cadillac.
The Emperor of Japan uses a Toyota and the Prime Minister of Italy rides a Maserati. But, everyone who is anyone in Pakistan needs an armoured Mercedes Benz, BMW or a Land Cruiser with bullet-proof glass, ballistic stainless steel plates, run-flat tires, an explosion-resistant fuel tank and layers of armour under its outer skin. One such special armoured version of the Mercedes-Benz S-Class, known as S-Guard, costs Pakistan Rs 160 million. We must have spent in excess of Rs 10 billion on such VIP vehicles.
The Government of Pakistan is high on cocaine. The carbon surcharge is to maintain that high. The Government of Pakistan spends a whopping Rs 500 billion more than it earns. The carbon surcharge is to fill that ever-ballooning gap.
Carbon tax is a pollution tax designed to protect the environment by reducing emissions of carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, sulphur hexafluoride, hydrofluorocarbons and perfluorocarbons. The Kyoto Protocol sets legally binding limits on the emission of greenhouse gases produced by Annex I countries-Australia, Austria, Belarus, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Monaco, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russian Federation, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom and the United States of America. Pakistan is not an Annex I country. Ideally, a state ought to raise a bulk of its revenues through progressive taxation-taxes that are direct and fair. Not Pakistan.
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ISSN 1563-9479 
