Friction and malpractices

LAHORE: There is no proper accountability in Pakistan. What is practiced in the name of accountability is in fact witch hunting. The government of the day choses and engineers wrongdoings of their opponents.

Realistically speaking, most of the politicians, bureaucrats, businessmen are involved in corrupt practices one way or the other. When a politician doles out undue favour to someone, they might not directly benefit from it, but this does add the person as a political ally through that favour.

If a bureaucrat bypasses the rules to provide monetary benefit to a friend or a client, he involves himself in corrupt practices. He might not earn anything from the friend, but by bypassing the rules he weakens the writ and revenue of the state.

If he bypasses rules to benefit a client he gets a nominal rent against huge benefit to the client. The word client is deliberately used because it is just like a business deal where both parties benefit.

If a businessman has availed one or many amnesty schemes we cannot give him a clean chit. He had acquired money illegally and laundered it through amnesty schemes. In fact, there should be a red flag on all those that availed amnesty schemes because it confirms the tendency of that person to adopt illegal means to accumulate wealth.

With so many influential crooks in the society, government’s actions to establish the writ of state and ensure better life for the citizens goes in vain as it hurts the interests of entrenched crooks. This is the reason that any fair and transparent action in this regard triggers strong protest from them.

All trade associations’ state that the tax net should be increased claiming that all their members are tax compliant. They think that mere filing of tax returns is enough to prove their compliance. This is against global norms of tax practices.

The tax collector has the right to audit tax returns and even raid the premises of tax filers that in the opinion of the tax collector are under-reporting their income. Raids by the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) in factories and markets are strongly resisted by the businessmen.

Big businesses or those businesses that have nothing to hide do not mind the FBR auditors peeking into their accounts. They furnish all documents voluntarily, including computer data to the tax officials.

It is worth noting that in almost all the audits conducted by the FBR directly or through third parties, the filed tax return is always much less than what the auditors assess. They then have to pay the actual tax.

Trade associations should support audits and raids to ensure full tax compliance by the existing taxpayers. They should also assist the state in nabbing tax evaders. Accountability should be for all.

Another burning issue that has remained pending for years is that of pollution caused by the industry in Pakistan. We have one of the best environmental laws, but its implementation is the worst.

Industries throw their waste in water channels of normal sewerage pipes with the connivance of the officials. Some in Lahore are disposing of their toxic chemical wastes in the Lahore canal for years. It is inconceivable that they are unaware of the havoc they are creating for the health of the common man. The violation of law is visible to all. The environment officials are also aware of the menace the industries are creating. They do not take action for obvious reasons.

When someone at the top decides to close polluting industries, the entire business community pleads to give the violators some time. That time is granted and then the matter closes till someone else at the top takes notice of these malpractices again. Rules are allowed to be violated in many other fields so that ‘investor confidence’ is not hurt. This attitude needs to change for the overall betterment of the economy as well as the people.