Priorities of poor and rich

LAHORE: Government imposes taxes that impact the poor without taking into account their capacity to bear, but when it has to (reluctantly) impose taxes that specifically impact the rich it ensures “they can bear them easily”.

Our economy is in a mess and the life of the common man is in tatters. Ordinary citizens are at a loss on how to manage their budgets.

Planners are aware of their plight, but keep on imposing taxes and increasing utility rates as the government is starved of resources. They appeal to the poor to bear and suffer in the supreme national interest. But where is the supreme national interest when it comes to the rich?

The poor and in fact even the middle class families have their hands full. They have to compromise on numerous essential needs in this distressed environment.

For the rich and relatively high earners, nothing has gone out of their reach even after an increase in duties and taxes. They might grumble about the additional taxes imposed on luxury items but they can manage and the consumption of those items would not be affected, rather it might increase.

They use their luxury vehicles as freely as during the days when petrol prices were half.

We are told that the petrol consumption has come down after a hefty increase in its prices. It is not because the affluent have curtailed their daily travel routine. They might be using higher quantities.

The reduction in consumption was because motorcyclists now use their bikes carefully and do not go on joy rides like they did when gasoline was cheaper. Planners would soon inform us that the import of edible oil has also gone down.

It would not be because the rich have reduced consumption, but because the poor have curtailed edible oil to a minimum. The edibles and items like petrol or power rates impact the poor only. Richer segments of the society are not impacted by the rate hikes of these commodities.

They would grumble, but buy luxury items even at 25 percent GST. They would protest if the GST is increased to 250 percent on all luxury items.

They would agitate if the import duty tripled and is charged on the actual global rates of the imported item and not on under-invoiced rates. If we take a round of numerous residential colonies, it would be found that posh residences are still illuminated from outside, while there might be a single low watt light or no light at all on the outer of houses in low income localities.

The rich would make sacrifices in supreme national interest if they are made to pay heavy property tax on all residences above 500 square yards and exorbitant monthly tax on luxury vehicles. These actions would hurt them as they would be paying taxes that tax their pockets heavily.

The poor are forced to take the most stringent and painful austerity measures to survive. Food and transport is their main worry. Education, health become secondary issues when budgets are tight.

Through these forced measures, they compromise on many essential expenses. Most have stopped taking medicines, leaving it to Allah to cure them. They have stopped taking mutton, beef or chicken that are out of their reach. They have reduced the consumption of edible oil by 50 percent as they cannot afford to buy the needed quantity due to prices.