KARACHI, The tax evaders and black economy mafia bosses are putting a strong resistance to the bids of the government to broaden the tax base and the government should resist them bravely, said Pasban Democratic Party (PDP) Chairman Altaf Shakoor here Sunday.

He said the decision of the FBR to block the cell phone SIMs of tax evaders was welcome and it should take legal action against the telephone companies that are refusing to implement this decision. He said without making strong and unpopular decisions, our sagging economy couldn’t be salvaged.

The PDP chief said the government presently squeezes the salaries class while other higher-earning segments of society easily evade taxes. He said the poor people are burdened with indirect taxes while the elite class enjoys every sort of relief.

Shakoor regretted that our political parties also support tax evaders and corrupt elite-class people. “Every effort of the government to increase the tax base fails because of the lack of political will.”

He said major tax evaders belonging to the elite class were sitting in assemblies and they sabotaged every step aimed at broadening the tax base. He said those people were also funding and running our major political parties.

He said the government must use artificial intelligence to net the tax evaders. He said the FBR and the State Bank of Pakistan have extensive records and data of the financial transactions and expenses incurred in the country. If they are really sincere to chase the tax evaders our tax collection could be easily doubled. He said we depend on IMF loans because we generate very low taxes. The only way to break the debt trap is to increase our tax collection and all-out efforts should be taken in this regard.

He said the courts should also decide the pending tax cases timely as presently litigation involving billions of rupees is pending with court. He said the FBR should be purged from corrupt officers who give shelter to the mega tax evaders. He said strict action is urgently needed against the corruption and kickbacks mafia whose interests are being looked after by the notorious people sitting in the corridors of power.

The PDP said we can’t end corruption by sending small-scale corrupt people to jail and the mega-scale corrupt people to the corridors of power. He said this type of hypocrisy must end for good now.