The mismanagement of the country especially the financial affairs has subjected the people to such a vast variety of taxes that they can hardly raise their head above the day to day financial worries. It has become almost impossible to take a step forward without paying some sort of a tax. Take the case of monthly bills that we receive and pay regularly. Apart from extremely heavy utility charges the bills contain taxes like income tax, FED (VAT mode), withholding tax and general sales tax (GST) etc. In addition the electricity bills carry an ambiguous sort of a tax named 'fuel price adjustment. These charges appear in the bill almost every alternate month. I have paid a sum of Rs. 14,853.00 during the current year on this account. As far as I understand the electricity bills are issued for the units consumed during a month with the charges calculated on the basis of price of fuel that prevailed during the period of consumption. If the price of fuel rises later on, the government should make the necessary 'adjustment from its own funds. Why should the consumers having paid bills in their entirety be punished for it? It is nothing but a shameful act of fleecing the people. Considering it as an illegitimate charge I treat the payment as charity to Zardari government. Apart from the above observation I would like to make a very pertinent point in this regard. A country with its economy based on taxes only can never become prosperous. A cursory glance over the economy of rich countries will show that the 'production aspect had a big hand in their prosperity. We must thus divert our attention towards this factor and give a boost to our economy by developing our natural resources, reviving the lost industrial power, raising the agricultural production to such a level that we become self-sufficient in food, enhancing the sphere of export and rejuvenating trade and commerce. The collection of taxes should act as a bonus to our economy. RAFI NASIM, Lahore, October 13.