FBR takes Pakistan for a ‘ride’

Mr. Shehbaz Sharif                                        January 15, 2025

Prime Minister of Pakistan

PM Secretariat, Constitution Avenue, Islamabad.

Mr. Muhammad Aurangzeb,

Minister of Finance, Block-‘Q’, Finance Division,

Pak. Secretariat, Islamabad

Mr. Rashid Mahmood Langrial

Chairman FBR,  3rd Floor FBR House,

Constitution Avenue, G-5, Islamabad.

Dear Sir,

FBR takes Pakistan for a ‘ride’

FBR must be commended for its brilliant eco-friendly, climate resilient initiative of ordering the purchase of 1,010 Honda City 1.2 L vehicles.  It may well be metaphorically true that these unique ‘tax-absorbing’ vehicles have zero carbon footprint, for they run entirely on the blood, toil and tears of the poor, instead of the traditional fossil fuel.

The expensive new 1010 Honda cars, one for each grade 17 officer, (notwithstanding what he does or does not), shall deplete the teetering exchequer by a whopping Rs5.6 billion.  These cars are packed with advanced detection features such as a navigation system with reverse cameras, GPS trackers (perhaps to raise alarm on detecting a tax evader), and a luxury interior with high-grade cushions to ensure ergonomic ‘posterior wellbeing’ of their esteemed passengers. It is not clear if they would also be coated with   nanostructured paint, used on B-2 Stealth bombers – to prevent detection by early warning radars of the tax evaders.

So, how exactly would these 1010 new cars enhance the tax revenue, is a mystery that boggles the finest economists of Pakistan. FBR already has a disproportionate fleet of 1244 cars and 975 drivers, not to mention a fuel burden of Rs1.13 billion per year.  Why do we refuse to understand that unless we improve processes and introduce technology, not even an Airbus-A310 gifted to each of the 1010 officers would improve the performance of the FBR. Perhaps, like all other government cars, the only beneficiaries of this extravaganza would be the family and friends of the 1010 Grade 17 officers.

Not a single individual amongst the 1010 beneficiaries of this visibly ruinous scheme had the conscience or the moral courage to stand up and refuse the offer. There could not have been a more appalling reflection of the calibre and ethical health of those who run this country.   No one raised an objection, and no one pointed out that this indulgence was in fact a sugar-coated bribe, extracted from the blood, tears and toil of the poorest segments of our society.  FBR that has been a principal architect of our utter adversity and indelible debt, trumped Pakistan yet again.

May I have your permission to inform you, Sir, that a million private security guards who stand duty for 12 hours every day, receive one third of the legal minimum wage, and have no pension scheme.  That the 12000 SSWMB sanitation workers of Sindh, clad in bright orange jackets (for better visibility), undergo the torture and indignity of cleaning our filth for a salary of Rs19,000 per month (as against the legal min wage of Rs37,000).  That every railway coolie is forced to pay one third of his daily earning to the Railway-appointed contractor.   That 18 coal miners have already lost their lives in the first 2 weeks of 2025 because of unsafe, unregistered, uncontrolled deathly coal mines of Pakistan.  All this misery and inequality is the result of resources of the poor that are constantly diverted to oblige the rich.

As a citizen, I see the counterproductive coddling of the FBR as an assault on the wellbeing of the people of Pakistan.  The state must liberate itself from being hostage to the rapacious demands of its hugely pampered and bloated bureaucracy.  The only way forward for Pakistan is to stop pampering its elite, cut down the size of FBR to half, and adopt efficient digital processes of tax collection – independent of all Honda Cities and certainly the grade 17 officers.

Respectfully,

Naeem Sadiq