Chairman FBR Dr Muhammad Ashfaq Ahmed said that the government would have to pay a political price for withdrawing GST exemption in the mini-budget. For 74 years, all the interest groups have come up with their favorite tax exemptions and no one touched the tax exemptions that belonged to an influential elite group because they were politically unpopular decisions.
According to the chairman of the Federal Board of Revenue, tax policy reforms needed to be made long ago. The current government is credited with making these unpopular political decisions, which could have political value. These tax exemptions did not benefit the common man but the elite class. The abolition of Rs 343 billion tax exemption for various interest groups would improve the tax system.
The PTI government has taken unpopular measures during its tenure. FBR is right to say that the government has to pay the political price for unpopular decisions and a glimpse of this can be seen in the recent local body elections in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The ruling party, the PTI, has been defeated in its stronghold.
There is a need for the PTI government to take steps that benefit the common man, keeping in view the interests of the people. The elite class must be included in the tax net, but the poor must be taken into account when making any decision so that the government does not face the political implications of its unpopular decisions.
