Yusuf Shirazi was missed in the days when businessmen were running from pillar to post to get assurances from Imran Khan and General Bajwa that NAB will not institute an inquiry against them.
Yusuf Shirazi was missed in the days when businessmen were running from pillar to post to get assurances from Imran Khan and General Bajwa that NAB will not institute an inquiry against them.
He was not a cribber, but always said what he felt. He looked at Pakistan’s economy with an optimistic outlook. Many years back, when I interviewed him, he said that Pakistan is one of the strongest economies of the world.
He passed away last week after a prolonged illness.
For him, the glass was always half full. He was quite a well-read person and kept tabs on the regional and word economy. The Indian economy is badly hit, particularly its automobile sector and I am quite certain that he would have referred to along with other sectors, the lay of off 350,000 workers employed by the Indian automobile sector. He once referred to Pakistan as a market of 197 million and that has a robust agriculture sector.
Unlike some other businessmen-cum-columnists who have ghost writers, Shirazi wrote articles himself on economic policies for various national dailies occasionally. Most big businessmen are even afraid to make an on record critical comment on government policies, but he had the knack to do so and get away with it without victimisation.
He had told me that on the contrary the bureaucracy gave him more respect for his forthright comments. That perhaps suited his business strategy also, which was not to approach any politician for a favour and always go through the bureaucracy.
In any case, Shirazi felt comfortable in the company of bureaucrats and journalists because he had worked in both capacities. As a journalist and as a bureaucrat, he served for eight years as an income tax officer.
He would have been very happy with the efforts of Shabbar Zaidi, the present FBR chairman who is trying to rope in more taxpayers through various schemes. Particularly, Zaidi is hard on the bazaar which has been evading taxes while doing business of millions of rupees.
Shirazi believed that a society which gives almost Rs500 billion in charity can obviously pay more taxes to the government and sustain the economy.
Speaking about how Pakistan can raise its revenue, Shirazi had once told me that if we can harness our resources, we wouldn’t need foreign aid.
He was right because Pakistan looks up to IMF and other international groups and countries for billions of dollars in aid, while even if half of the revenue from the country’s undocumented economy is realised, it would be a major boost to our development, he believed.
But why don’t people pay taxes? Shirazi had observed that frankly no tax evasion is possible without the connivance of tax officers. And secondly, he thought that people do not trust the government that the money given to it will be well spent on the social sector and infrastructure.
To support his argument, he had pointed out that according to Antol Leiven’s Pakistan, a Hard Country, while the total collection of taxes is less than 1 percent of the GDP; the people’s contribution to charities is 5 percent of the GDP.
Shirazi was one of the few protectionists left among big businessmen in the country. He was a critic of the Washington Consensus which pushed all countries to globalisation, liberalisation and deregulation. But now, even Washington is pursuing protectionism under Trump.
I remember that when an article of mine in favour of opening trade with India was published in daily Dawn, Shirazi rang me and said that you have crossed over to the lobby that is preaching this mantra of opening up trade with India.
I retorted that you can stop the opening of motorcycle imports from India, which was his main business, but what are you going to do when Chinese motorcycles will flood the country.
At that time, China had not started exporting its motorbikes. But when questioned that the opening of the market for Chinese motorbikes had brought down the prices to the benefit of the local consumers, Shirazi, whose main business was the production of Honda motorbikes, alleged that if the manufacturers of Chinese motorbikes would not under-invoice on their imports and did not evade sales taxes, the difference in prices would have been much less than what it was at the time.
However, in spite of the fact that out of the 70 motorbike producing units in the country at the time, 65 were assembling cheaper Chinese and local models, Honda had remained and sill is a market leader.
“We are expensive in the market but are peoples’ choice because of high quality and durability,” he had said. His contention was “not to run-down the competition, but to illustrate the point that local production would attract investment and create the much-needed jobs in the country.”
He believed that Pakistani businessmen feel more comfortable in a military dictatorship and not in a democracy, so he would have clicked more with Bajwa than any other politician.
The writer is the author of What's wrong with Pakistan? And can be reached at ayazbabar@gmail.com
