Keeping in view the agrarian nature of the economy, the British rulers introduced some extensive land reforms in the subcontinent. In order to raise the revenues for the empire, they evolved and adopted a comprehensive land revenue system. As land revenue was the primary source of income they introduced an efficient mechanism for assessment, collection and recovery of land revenues. For this purpose they maintained a complete and thorough land record by making an extensive survey and preparing the site maps of the whole agricultural land within the empire. Each acre of land was documented and assigned a specific number after the determination of its ownership.
A hierarchy of land revenue administration was established starting from the village officers to assistant collector, deputy collector, collector and the financial commissioner who were responsible for the whole collection of land revenue. The recovery procedure introduced by them is still considered to be an ideal one and is being followed in certain recovery proceedings in Pakistan even today. Regrettably, we have somehow failed in introducing any such effective taxation system in our county since independence.
At present, Pakistan’s tax-GDP ratio stands just at 9% which is of course quite disappointing. One of the major reasons for low revenue receipts is the very fact that the economy of the country largely remains un-documented. There is no authentic or reliable data available showing who earns and how much. Taking benefit from this loophole, a large segment of taxable class has simply managed to stay out of the tax net. There are lots of professionals, businessmen, traders, agriculturists who earn millions of rupees but do not contribute a single penny to the national kitty.
There are many interest and pressure groups in our country who always oppose any move of extending the tax net to them. At present, the crippling economy of the country is facing chronic problems of heavy public debts, budget deficit and revenue shortfalls. All these pressing problems can be overcome by increasing the revenue collection by effectively mobilizing our domestic resources. For this, we have to make some serious endeavors for the complete and true documentation of all the sectors of the economy. Why can’t we perform a task today in our country that the British have done effectively and successfully more than a century ago?
This policy of protecting the rich will land us into a thicker soup than we already are. I would like to request the present government to start the process of taxation and to start by their own family holdings, and for once to be honest about them!
MOHSIN RAZA MALIK,
Lahore, January 3.