Comparative distress

LAHORE: New budgetary taxes will impact the poor much more than the middle class, which still has the option to reduce consumption of some food items without facing hunger. However, the country’s 40 per cent poor will remain hungry even after consuming all their resources on food.

It is true that salaried individuals got a raw deal from the state as their income tax rates have enhanced significantly, and they are rightly protesting. Still, they will be better off than the poverty-stricken population of this country.

The poor’s standard of living will decline even more, while a majority will still be able to live decently if they adopt austerity. And they will because they have no other option.These people are likely to stop dining outside; reduce the intake of junk food; reduce power use; shift mobile phone communication to messaging apps as much as possible; and curtail the use of cars or motorcycles to the minimum. Life will be difficult for them but not impossible.

But for the poor, no such adjustments are possible even if their overall expenses increase by 1.0 per cent. They already eat food that has no animal protein, like beef, mutton, or chicken. They already could not afford these luxuries even at pre-budget rates, let alone at the new post-budget prices. They are hugely impacted by a slightest increase in the rates of pulses, vegetables, spices, vegetable oil, and numerous other daily use items, whose prices are bound to rise steeply after the budget.

The prices of wheat flour have started increasing again after dropping briefly, and an increase in the fixed power rates of flour mills will further increase the prices of staple foods for the poor.

These poor cannot afford any further increases in power tariffs, and many are currently living without power. They cannot afford to buy kitchen fuel, be it coal, wood, kerosene oil, or LPG, but the prices of all these items are constantly increasing after the budget. What should this large, deprived population do?

They need help from the state and the affluent society. The finances of the affluent segment of society have been curtailed by heavy taxation, particularly the salaried class, who are the largest contributors of assistance to the poor. Then we have a government that is not prepared to adopt real austerity and pass on some of the resources thus saved to the poor.

In fact, planners have exhibited their callous attitude by protecting bureaucrats and armed personnel from certain taxes while granting them hefty increases in salaries. A more unfortunate aspect was an increase in the already high perks and privileges of lawmakers. It is akin to Nero playing the flute while Rome was burning.

The government is talking about curtailing expenses by closing all redundant ministries after a committee formed by the prime minister gives its report in a few weeks. That is good if it is hopefully done transparently. But the austerity the people want to see without any delay is regarding the unnecessary government expenses.

The PM, the president, governors, and chief ministers should live in three-bedroom residences, and their colonial-era mansions should be immediately auctioned so that this chapter is closed forever.

The budget of all these offices must be slashed by 75 per cent. The fleet of cars used for protocol and other duties should be curtailed first by 50 per cent and by another 25 per cent next year. Government officers should not be provided cars individually but allowed only to request for vehicles on an as-needed basis from a pool of cars set up in each ministry.