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Feminine touch but not feel; taxing and pro-rich as ever
(Published 16.6.2009
http://www.dailynationalcourier.com/national_courier/jun2009_daily/16-06-09/artical/artical1.htm) The only thing different about budget 2009-10, about which a section of media seem to have gone gaga, is that it was presented by a female minister of state directly from "the hoarse mouth" (pun intended). Never mind the finger pointing at the previous despotic dispensation of which she was a not only a part but also a minister of state busy offering "˜valuable' suggestions for a series of budget.
To say that the budget speech sounded like a badly broken record playing repetitiously would be an insult to the broken record because first, records have gone out of fashion many moons ago replaced initially by audio tapes and currently by CDs and second, because even when in vogue broken records were taken off the record player as soon as listener/s realized they were broken. It's a baffling budget indeed as the best of economists and analysts, forget ordinary mortals like you and me, don't seem to make a head or tail of. What is obvious is enough to scare the people but what is left undisclosed could be much more scary. In the final analysis, the budget seems to be as pro-rich, and as anti-people, as always.
Who says the budget speeches could not be hilariously funny? Read the nuggets translated in English from the budget speech in Urdu and you would agree with me that Pakistani politicians indeed have a great sense of humour even if always comes at the cost of their lowly subjects: "Government's efforts helped bring down inflation from 25 per cent to 14.4 per cent [it's just that people are poorer, hungrier and taxed to death than ever before]; "Pakistan is one of the country's in the world where the GDP-tax ratio is the lowest [who has ever stopped the successive governments to expand the tax net and base to agriculture sector that gets the top pampering]; "If as a nation we fail to adopt tax culture and if all those citizens capable of paying tax don't pay tax Pakistan would never be able to stand on its own feet" [as is the burden of tax is most heavily borne by the salaried class and poor segment of the society who are fit to cough out even hidden wealth tax]; "The former government [of which you were a part] pursued the tickle down policy that made rich richer and poor poorer [you were never reported to disagree with the abhorrent policy even once]. Our government [yes this is "˜your' government second time around consecutively just as the previous despotic one was also your government] is aggressively dealing with problems of poverty [that's what you also said during your stunt with the previous government]". The people have every right to challenge the sincerity of a political turn coat. Besides the heavy reliance on foreign and domestic loans, Rs 264.9 billion and Rs 457.6 billion respectively, to meet the Rs 722.5 billion deficit of total outlay of Rs 2,897.4 billion in budget 2009-10 no measures are announced to cut the unproductive expenses. The allowances of Rs 390 million allocated for the President would be enough to pay the salary of Rs 6,000 legalized minimum wage of a labourer for over 5,416 years or salaries or 1,000 workers for almost five-and-half years. Similarly the allowances of Rs 428.2 million allocated for the expenses of Prime Minister Secretariat would salary of single minimum wage labourer for 5,947 years or salary of 1,000 minimum wage workers for almost 6 years. These allocations, heavy as it is, are exclusive of other expenses of these two most august offices of a country facing near-collapse economy. In addition, Rs 39 million is earmarked for the computerization of the President House. Could a self-acclaimed peoples' government blame such excesses to the former despotic disposition as "˜inherited'?
The government has announced to reduce the excise duty on locally assembled cars by 5 per cent and many incentives for custom duty, regulatory duty and excise duty on the import of cell phones and service. It has also allocated a princely sum of Rs 23 billion for Heath which translates into a magnificent sum of Rs 135 per person or a kingly Rs 11.27 per person annually. Of course, this magnificent health budget is not for respected parliamentarians, bureaucrats (civilian or otherwise) and high officials who along with their family have access to best medical facilities at some o the most expensive hospitals the bills of whom are paid by the ordinary tax payers like Javed, Bilal and Hanif.
Just how much priority the government attaches to education in a country reeling from massive illiteracy is obvious from the fact that it has seen it fit to allocate a meager sum of Rs 4 billion for basic education and primary schools. The proclaimed severe financial constraints, however, has not deterred the government to earmark Rs 22.5 for Higher Education Commission, including Fullbright Sscholarship, for the sole benefit of the sons and daughters of the ruling elite simply because in a society where education merchants have rendered even half-decent basic education inaccessible to majority of the people only the sons and daughters reach to such exclusively high levels of academic excellence. The motto of the story is that the sons of daughters of a clerk and all other lowly subjects should remain a subject generation after generation.
If you missed reading my article "Are you ready for a thorough thrashing" let me close this one with some of its relevant excerpts. I said, "Since it's the Budget time let me rephrase a famous saying, "an annual people-thrashing ritual by the elites, of the elites for the elites". And yes, stop believing in miracles- they just don't happen here in this land of the pure. May God save us from our own luxury-drenched rulers whose favourite pastime seems to revolve around one thing specifically- finding ingenious methods of taxing an already thoroughly fleeced people to maintain their jet-set lifestyles. What worries me the most are the statements issued by the "˜sympathetic' advisor to the President on Finance that talk of shifting the burden of taxes to rich instead of poor.
"What good you should expect from a government which slashes petroleum price by majestic Rs 1.45, or 2.5 per cent, despite earning a pure profit of Rs 28 per litre on top of already collecting duties, taxes and levies on the sale of every litre of petroleum and also on diesel and kerosene oil- the fuel of the poorest of the poor? "¦One should not expect any miracle from the upcoming budget. Despite deceiving statements be rest assured that the ultimate burden of the budget in its entirety would be borne only by the subjects so that the ruling aristocracy would keep on living in utmost luxury as always. It's time to stop believing in miracles."
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